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(CN) — The Justice Department sued Maryland on Thursday over its in-state tuition program for immigrant students who arrived in the United States when they were young, the 13th such lawsuit filed against states across the country.
In the lawsuit filed in Maryland federal court, the feds argue the financial aid program violates a federal statute barring preferential treatment for immigrants without lawful status. Tuition assistance for immigrants began under the Maryland DREAM Act but is not intended for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement announcing the lawsuit that Congress made clear via 8 U.S. Code Section 1623 the state could not deny in-state tuition to U.S. citizens while providing it to immigrant students.
“By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Maryland is not only violating federal law but subsidizing education for illegal aliens, costing Maryland taxpayers roughly $9 million for just one academic year,” Woodward said.
The Justice Department is asking U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Donald Trump appointee, to strike down Maryland’s program as unconstitutional.
In the 23-page lawsuit, the DOJ cites the Maryland DREAM Act of 2011 and two subsequent amendments in 2019 and 2024 — both expanding the eligibility of immigrant students by reducing the number of years their parents must file taxes to receive residency from three to two years — as illegal.
“Collectively, such blatant unequal treatment favoring illegal aliens in Maryland over U.S. citizens from other states is squarely prohibited and preempted by Congress,” the Justice Department argues. ‘Specifically, federal law mandates that ‘an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state … for any postsecondary benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit … without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
The feds have filed 13 total lawsuits against states’ in-state tuition programs, obtaining favorable rulings in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Their lawsuits in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are still pending.
Maryland is one of 20 states, along with Washington, D.C., that provide in-state tuition to immigrants without permanent legal status, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. D.C. and 18 other states also provide access to state financial aid.
The portal notes that, of Maryland’s 431,608 students in higher education, 11,282 lack permanent legal status.
The Justice Department cited a 2023 ruling by the Fifth Circuit, Young Conservatives of Texas Foundation v. Smatresk, which held that Section 1623 expressly preempts state rules “that grant illegal aliens benefits when U.S. citizens haven’t received the same.”
Under Maryland’s tuition regime, the state charges residents approximately $12,835 per year for undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park, while charging out-of-state students approximately $44,086 per year.
Maryland requires immigrant students to have attended high school in the state and graduated, to register for college within six years of their graduation and to have parents paying taxes in Maryland for two years. If the student is not a permanent resident, they must file an application within 30 days of becoming eligible.
According to the DOJ, the impact of the policy “cannot be overstated,” noting that in the fall 2024 semester there were 496 immigrant students enrolled and receiving in-state tuition across the state’s 15 community colleges, and 209 at the nine public four-year colleges.
“Combined, from summer 2024 through spring 2025, the amount saved by illegal aliens who received in-state tuition was $8,957,356 — a substantial portion of taxpayer dollars subsidizing education for aliens who break our nation’s immigration laws,” the Justice Department argues.
Thursday’s lawsuit is the second the DOJ has filed against Maryland regarding its immigration-related policies. On July 9, the department sued the state over its sanctuary policies, arguing they interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement.
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