Overview
- The Department of Justice filed complaints against Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Monday, asking courts to block enforcement of laws that require public colleges to give in-state tuition rates and permit state scholarships to qualifying undocumented residents.
- The DOJ bases its suits on a 1996 federal statute it says forbids offering postsecondary residency benefits to noncitizens if U.S. citizens from other states would not be eligible, and it argues the state laws unlawfully discriminate against American students.
- Massachusetts and Rhode Island have said they will defend their laws; Rhode Island’s attorney general’s office said it had not yet been served but will aggressively defend the state policy, and Massachusetts prepared to defend its 2023 Tuition Equity Law.
- The new filings join 10 earlier DOJ actions, creating a 12-state litigation campaign that has produced mixed outcomes so far, including permanent injunctions in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska and a dismissal in Minnesota.
- If courts grant the DOJ requests, public colleges could be barred from offering in-state rates and state aid to undocumented residents, affecting thousands of students and prompting further legal fights over federal preemption and immigration law.