Overview
- The Justice Department filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, seeking to block state laws that give undocumented residents in-state tuition and access to state college aid.
- The complaint argues the policies violate federal law by granting benefits not equally available to all U.S. citizens and by favoring undocumented residents over citizens from other states.
- New Jersey since 2013 has allowed qualifying residents to pay in-state rates regardless of immigration status, and a 2018 law opened state grants and scholarships to those students.
- The filing names the state and several higher-education entities and officials, and it asks the court for an injunction that would halt tuition discounts and state aid for undocumented students while the case proceeds.
- The case is the ninth in a DOJ initiative, with earlier actions in Texas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma producing favorable orders, and related suits still pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, Nebraska, and California.