DOJ Sues Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington Over In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens

The Justice Department filed four complaints Thursday challenging state laws that give in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal aliens while denying the same rates to U.S. citizens who live out of state. The targets are Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said Congress made clear more than 30 years ago that states “cannot put illegal aliens before our Nation’s own citizens,” and that the department has now sued 21 states. “Our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to American citizens.” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said colleges “cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens.”

The complaints rest on 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a), part of the 1996 welfare-reform package. That statute says an alien who is not lawfully present is not eligible for any postsecondary education benefit on the basis of residence in a state unless a U.S. citizen is eligible for the same benefit without regard to whether the citizen is such a resident. The department also cites 8 U.S.C. § 1621. The United States asks courts to declare the state statutes and rules preempted and to enjoin in-state rates, scholarships, and aid for illegal aliens. DOJ said it has already won or settled analogous cases in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois, including a Fifth Circuit order. Other suits remain pending. Washington Post and Higher Ed Dive put the new filings at 21 total; results in the rest of the docket have been mixed.

The Arizona complaint challenges Proposition 308, approved by voters in 2022, which lets students who attended and graduated from an Arizona high school pay resident tuition even if they lack lawful status. DOJ, citing an Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting account of public-college data, said at least 720 illegal aliens received in-state tuition in fall 2025, including 432 at Arizona State University. With about a $24,000 gap between resident and nonresident rates at ASU, the complaint alleges those 432 students received roughly $10.5 million in reduced tuition at that campus alone. The same reporting estimated more than 3,600 illegal aliens a year could qualify going forward. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’s office said it is reviewing the suit and that Prop. 308 conditions eligibility on high-school attendance, not on residency as the government describes it. The Arizona Board of Regents said it follows state law and is reviewing next steps.

In Washington, the complaint notes University of Washington resident tuition and fees of $13,406 for 2026–27 versus $44,460 for nonresidents. Oregon’s filing also challenges aid limited to in-state students, including a Rural Nurse Scholars Scholarship at Oregon Health & Science University. New Mexico offers resident tuition and statewide scholarship programs that include undocumented residents. All four states have Democratic governors. The suits do not bar illegal aliens from enrolling; they seek to stop resident-price tuition and state aid that out-of-state U.S. citizens cannot get. Implementation, if the United States prevails, would be by injunction against the state laws. The four cases were filed Aug. 27.