The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened investigations into five universities to determine whether they are granting exclusionary scholarships for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or undocumented students in violation of civil rights law.
The department announced the national origin discrimination investigations on Wednesday into the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University.
DOE said the investigations are based on complaints submitted to OCR by the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project, and will ultimately assess whether the schools are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition against national origin discrimination.
“On January 21, 2025, President Trump promised that ‘every single day of the Trump Administration, [he] will, very simply, put America first.’ Neither the Trump Administration’s America first policies nor the Civil Right Act of 1964’s prohibition on national origin discrimination permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.
“As we mark President Trump’s historic six months back in the White House, we are expanding our enforcement efforts to protect American students and lawful residents from invidious national origin discrimination of the kind alleged here,” he added.
Complaints filed by the OCR allege that the universities provide exclusionary funding based on national origin. DOE points to:
- University of Louisville’s Sagar Patagundi Scholarship to “subsidize the cost of higher education…for undergraduate DACA and undocumented students”
- University of Nebraska Omaha’s Dreamer’s Pathway Scholarship for “students who are DACA or DACA-eligible and Nebraska residents who are seeking an undergraduate degree”
- University of Miami’s U Dreamers Program, which “is available to academically talented and admissible [DACA] and undocumented high school seniors and transfer students”
- University of Michigan’s Dreamer Scholarship, which “is intended to support undocumented students or students with DACA status”
- Western Michigan University’s WMU Undocumented/DACA Scholarship “for undergraduate students who are ineligible to receive federal student aid due to an undocumented or DACA status.”
“Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students. At the Equal Protection Project, we are gratified that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is acting on our complaints regarding scholarships that excluded American-born students,” said William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project. “Discrimination against American-born students must not be tolerated.”
The department said its investigation will examine other scholarships that allegedly exclude students based on characteristics like race and color, including:
- University of Louisville’s Dawn Wilson Scholarship for “undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color” and the Louisville Tango Festival Scholarship for “Latino/a/x and Hispanic students”
- University of Nebraska Omaha’s HDR Scholarship, which gives “preference…to underrepresented minority students”
- Western Michigan University’s Elissa Gatlin Endowed Scholarship for “African American, Native American, or Hispanic American” students
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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