The Trump administration has launched legal action against Virginia for providing illegal immigrants with educational benefits unavailable to American citizens from other states, according to a report by Breitbart News.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday challenging state laws that grant illegal aliens in-state tuition rates and financial aid at public colleges and universities. The DOJ argued that “federal law prohibits States from providing aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States with any postsecondary education benefit that is denied to U.S. citizens.”
Virginia Code sections 23.1-502 and 23.505.1 “classify illegal aliens as Virginia residents based on certain conditions,” according to the legal complaint. These provisions allow illegal immigrants to receive “reduced in-state tuition and state-administered financial assistance for public state colleges and universities” while American citizens from neighboring states “are ineligible.”
The complaint states that “federal law prohibits States from providing aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States with any postsecondary education benefit that is denied to U.S. citizens. See 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a). There are no exceptions. Virginia violates it nonetheless. This court should put an end to this and permanently enjoin the enforcement of provisions of the Virginia Education Code that directly conflict with federal immigration law.”
The legal filing continues by emphasizing the discriminatory nature of Virginia’s policy.
“Virginia Code §§ 23.1-502 and 23.505.1 explicitly classify illegal aliens as Virginia residents based on certain conditions. That classification makes illegal aliens eligible for reduced in-state tuition and state-administered financial assistance for public state colleges and universities while U.S. citizens from other states are ineligible for the reduced tuition and must pay higher out-of-state tuition rates. This is not only wrong but illegal,” the complaint states.
The document argues that Virginia’s law violates federal statutes prohibiting states from granting illegal aliens residency-based educational benefits unless American citizens can access those same benefits “without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
“The challenged act, as applied to illegal aliens, is thus unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. This Court should declare Virginia’s law, as applied to illegal aliens, preempted and permanently enjoin its enforcement,” the complaint concludes.
This lawsuit represents part of a broader administration effort. The Trump administration has previously sued Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Illinois, and California over similar legislation. The Hill reported that Texas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma agreed to terminate in-state tuition for illegal aliens, while “Illinois and California continue to fight their lawsuits.”
In July, Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton reported that the Department of Education announced plans to “end taxpayer subsidization of career, technical, and adult education programs for illegal immigrants.”
The department rescinded Clinton-era standards that permitted illegal immigrants to access federal funding for education programs in violation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The Education Department’s new interpretive rule clarifies that illegal aliens cannot access Pell Grants and student loans.
