Justice Department Sues Four States Over In‑State Tuition and Aid for Undocumented Students

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington on Thursday, opening a new legal fight over state laws that allow some undocumented students to receive in-state tuition and, in some cases, state financial aid at public colleges and universities.

In four separate federal complaints filed the same day, the Justice Department argued that the state policies conflict with 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a), a 1996 federal law enacted as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The United States is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, asking courts to declare the state laws invalid and block their enforcement under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which makes federal law controlling when state law conflicts with it.

The department said the four cases bring its broader litigation campaign over similar tuition-benefit laws to 21 states. At the center of each lawsuit is the same legal claim: that federal law bars a person “not lawfully present” from receiving a postsecondary education benefit on the basis of state residence unless the same benefit is available to U.S. citizens regardless of where they live.

Arizona is the most detailed example in Thursday’s filings. The complaint there challenges the state’s in-state tuition policy as amended by Proposition 308, a 2022 ballot measure approved by voters and codified at A.R.S. § 15-1803. The Justice Department said the measure extends in-state tuition eligibility at Arizona’s public universities and community colleges to students without lawful immigration status.

Citing reporting by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and public-university data, the department said that in fall 2025 at least 720 such students received in-state tuition in Arizona public higher education, including 432 at Arizona State University. It also said the roughly $24,000 gap between resident and nonresident tuition at ASU translated into about $10.5 million in reduced tuition there over the last year.

In New Mexico, the Justice Department challenged a state law and related administrative rule that it said make students without lawful status eligible for state-funded financial aid, including scholarships and grants.

In Oregon, the complaint targets statutory and administrative provisions tied to the state’s Tuition Equity framework. The department argues those rules allow resident tuition and related benefits in a way that conflicts with federal law.

And in Washington, the Justice Department said state laws and administrative provisions make students without lawful status eligible for resident tuition as well as state financial grants and loans, again in violation of the federal statute.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Brett A. Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in the department’s announcement.

The cases do not resolve the issue; they begin it. No court has ruled on the newly filed complaints. But the lawsuits put a focused question before federal judges in four Western states: whether state policies that lower tuition costs or open access to state aid for some undocumented students can stand alongside a 1996 federal restriction.

For students and public colleges, the practical stakes are straightforward. The disputes center on who qualifies for resident tuition rates — often far lower than out-of-state prices — and whether students without lawful immigration status may also receive state-funded grants, scholarships or loans. The legality of those benefits is now being tested in federal court.