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CHICAGO (CN) — The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois, its governor, state attorney general and public universities over laws providing in-state tuition and scholarship opportunities to children of undocumented immigrants.
In the 25-page complaint filed in federal court in the Southern District of Illinois, the Justice Department said several Illinois statutes designed to protect the rights of undocumented students violate federal immigration laws and the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit revolves around the Illinois DREAM and RISE acts, which were enacted into law in 2011 and 2019, respectively. The Retention of Illinois Students and Equity Act (RISE) Act allows Illinois residents without permanent legal status who are ineligible for federal student aid to apply for state student aid. The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act was designed to make scholarships, college savings and prepaid tuition programs available to students without legal status who graduated from Illinois high schools.
“Illinois has an apparent desire to win a ‘race to the bottom’ as the country’s leading sanctuary state. Its misguided approach mandating in-state tuition, scholarships, and financial aid to illegal aliens plainly violates federal law,” U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said in a joint statement with U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This policy treats illegal aliens better than U.S. citizens living in other states and incentivizes even more illegal immigration, all on the taxpayer’s dime. Illinois citizens deserve better.”
The Justice Department cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in the lawsuit, which aim to ensure that residents without legal status don’t get preferential treatment or taxpayer benefits. The Trump administration argues that the scholarship programs and in-state tuition opportunities in Illinois qualify as preferential treatment for migrant students.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Bondi said in an emailed statement. “This Department of Justice has already filed multiple lawsuits to prevent U.S. students from being treated like second-class citizens — Illinois now joins the list of states where we are relentlessly fighting to vindicate federal law.”
The Justice Department has filed similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Texas quickly agreed to the Trump administration’s demands, ending in-state tuition rates for residents without legal status just hours after the Justice Department filed its lawsuit in June.
“This law was an insult to our nation’s citizens and has now been rightly stopped from being enforced,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a joint statement with Bondi. “I will continue to fight for the American people and work swiftly to defeat any policy that puts illegal aliens ahead of our own citizens.”
This is not the first time the Trump administration has taken Illinois to court for its immigration policies.
Back in February, the Justice Department sued Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago over local laws that it said impede on federal immigration policy. Specifically, the lawsuit pointed to the Illinois’ Way Forward Act and TRUST Acts and Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance, all of which prohibit local officials from sharing information about a person’s immigration or custody status with federal immigration authorities.
A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in July for lack of standing and failure to state a claim, and described it as an “end run on the 10th Amendment.”
The Justice Department also named Illinois in a separate lawsuit in May, which claims that an Illinois workplace privacy law interferes with federal immigration authority. These lawsuits are just a sliver of Trump’s efforts since the start of his presidency to overhaul immigration and border security. He’s filed similar litigation in New York, California and a litany of other states.
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