May 1 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors are suing New Jersey for offering qualifying noncitizen residents in-state college tuition and state-funded benefits, the latest state the Trump administration has accused of discriminating against out-of-state Americans in its anti-immigration crackdown.
The Justice Department has brought nine lawsuits challenging states’ laws often called Dream Acts, which generally offer noncitizens who have lived in and attended high school in the state for several years the same college tuition that citizen residents are charged.
The Justice Department filed its lawsuit Thursday, asking the court to block New Jersey from enforcing two laws: one passed in 2013 that offers in-state tuition to eligible noncitizen residents, and another passed in 2018 that extends their eligibility to state financial aid programs and scholarships.
Federal prosecutors alleged in the lawsuit that the laws “blatantly discriminate in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states” and violate federal law, which bars states from offering postsecondary education benefits based on residency to people unlawfully present in the country unless U.S. citizens are eligible for the same benefits.
“Imagine being denied the opportunity of education in our own country. By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, the state of New Jersey is doing just that,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration carries out an aggressive anti-immigration policy that has included mass round-ups of noncitizens to revoking deportation protections for those from war- or catastrophe-torn nations.
Almost exactly a year ago, President Donald Trump signed the “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens” executive order, which directed the attorney general to identify laws “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,” including state laws “that provide in-state higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-state American citizens.”
Of the nine lawsuits challenging these Dream Act laws to date, Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma have resolved their cases either through agreements, consent decrees or joint motions.
Lawsuits are still pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, Nebraska, California and now New Jersey.
According to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, 21 states and Washington, D.C., provide in-state tuition to undocumented students, while 18 and D.C. also provide access to state financial aid.
