One of the more successful initiatives coming down from the Trump administration has been the effort to put a stop to the practice of states offering special college tuition deals to illegal migrants.
To date, the administration has taken six states to court and won, forcing those states to end their in-state tuition offerings to illegals and their non-resident children.
With the most recent decision in Kansas, the states that have been forced to put a stop to the special tuition deals include Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois. The Department of Justice (DOJ) lost one effort in Minnesota, but the ruling is being appealed to the 8th Circuit.
There are still a large group of states that have the policy in place, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The DOJ is suing most of these states, as well.
In August the DOJ announced that 21 states were being hauled into court for giving illegals and their children the cut-rate tuition deals to state supported colleges and universities.
Federal law prohibits this practice because it isn’t constitutional to offer non-citizens a state-funded deal that American citizens cannot enjoy. But many states passed laws allowing for illegals to get low tuition deals knowing full well that federal law prohibited it, but assuming that no presidential administration would ever dare challenge the policies.
“Over 30 years ago, Congress made clear that States cannot put illegal aliens before our Nation’s own citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. said in a DOJ statement in August. “By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona are pushing citizens to the side and ignoring federal law. No more. As of today, we have now sued 21 states who we allege were thwarting Congress’s clear prohibition on placing aliens over citizens. Our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to American citizens.”
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” added Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
Cases are still ongoing in Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.
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