Trump administration battles in court to make undocumented students pay up to three times more for college

Four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington) joined last week the 17 others already facing lawsuits from the Donald Trump administration for allowing undocumented students to access public universities without being excluded from resident tuition rates. As part of its aggressive immigration agenda, the administration has targeted states that permit students to pay in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status.

In a country where the cost of higher education is so high that many families struggle to afford it, access to in-state tuition rates, which are substantially lower than those charged to out-of-state students, can determine whether a student is able to continue their studies. This is especially true for families of undocumented migrants, who tend to accept lower-paid jobs.

“Washington state won’t be bullied into changing how we provide opportunities for young people in our state. We’ll see them in court, and we expect to win,” Washington Governor Bob Ferguson responded on social media.

The gap between resident and nonresident tuition rates at public universities in the four states is significant. According to the lawsuit, for the 2026-27 academic year, Washington residents would pay $13,406 at the University of Washington, compared with $44,460 for out-of-state students.

The laws in the states being sued allow students without legal immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition if they meet certain requirements, many of them similar across states. In most cases, students must have graduated from a high school in the state, in addition to meeting conditions such as residing there for a specified period and committing to apply for permanent residency once they become eligible.

Several governors, state lawmakers and attorneys general in the affected states have denounced what they see as federal interference in an area under state jurisdiction. They have also argued that denying students access to higher education on the basis of their immigration status would amount to discrimination.

“The federal government has now sued 21 states for letting Dreamers who attended school in places like Arizona be able to afford a college education at our state’s community colleges and universities,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes in a statement. “Fundamentally, this is about state’s rights and I will vigorously defend Arizona’s right to set its own rules, especially ones that are passed by voters themselves.” In Arizona, Proposition 308, which was approved by voters, ties a student’s eligibility to where they attended and graduated from high school, rather than to their place of residence.

The Trump administration argues that states that have adopted similar policies give foreign nationals access to public benefits at the expense of U.S. citizens. “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,” Associate Deputy Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a statement.

Since 2001, nearly half of U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia, have enacted some form of tuition equity policy and, in some cases, financial aid programs. Many states do not ask students to verify their immigration status, but others, including Georgia and South Carolina, bar students who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents from attending public institutions of higher education.

Not all states have been willing to defend their policies. Some have received adverse court rulings and subsequently abandoned the programs they had in place. That has been the case in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Illinois. In Kentucky, a judge also sided with the federal government, although the Latino civil rights organization MALDEF has appealed the ruling. By contrast, in March, a federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit against Minnesota, a decision the Justice Department is appealing.

The Trump administration argues that, under a federal law enacted in 1996, states that offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants on the basis of state residence must make the same rates available to all U.S. citizens. The states, for their part, contend that their policies do not violate federal law because eligibility for reduced tuition is based on where students attended high school, not simply where they live.

Many of the students whose access to higher education depends on the outcome of this dispute are so-called Dreamers, who arrived in the United States as children and have completed their schooling in what they consider their home country despite lacking legal immigration status.

“Ending in-state tuition is a deliberate and wicked effort to keep predominantly Black and brown immigrant students in a permanent caste in society where they are underpaid and exploited,” said advocacy group United We Dream.

Other states sued by the Trump administration include Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Colorado and Maryland.

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