Nebraska joins DOJ effort to end in-state tuition for undocumented students

Dive Brief:

The U.S. Department of Justice and Nebraska’s attorney general office asked a federal judge Tuesday to strike down state laws granting in-state tuition rates to certain undocumented students. 
If approved, Nebraska will become the fourth state to side with the Trump administration in court to roll back these benefits. 
However, the DOJ hasn’t always prevailed when states defend such policies. Just last month, a federal judge dismissed the agency’s challenge to Minnesota laws offering in-state tuition rates and scholarship eligibility for certain undocumented students. 

Dive Insight: 

The higher education landscape for undocumented students is rapidly shifting under the Trump administration. Before President Donald Trump retook office, 25 states and Washington, D.C, had policies on the books granting in-state tuition rates to eligible undocumented students. 

Since then, the DOJ has filed lawsuits challenging such policies in eight states. In each of the lawsuits, agency officials accuse the states of unlawfully offering educational benefits to undocumented immigrants that aren’t available to all U.S. citizens, including out-of-state students. 

The DOJ is challenging Nebraska’s laws on the same grounds. 

“Nebraska’s unconstitutional and un-American laws should never have been passed in the first place and are prohibited by federal law,” Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s civil division, said in a Tuesday statement.  

The state’s Republican governor and attorney general both voiced support for striking down the laws. 

“Nebraskans expect that illegal aliens won’t get the benefit of in-state tuition and financial aid, and federal law forbids it,” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement.

In three Republican-leaning states — Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma — state officials have sided with the Trump administration in federal court and had their policies struck down. 

But Democratic-led states facing DOJ lawsuits have taken another tack. 

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office issued a statement saying, “Good luck, Trump. We’ll see you in court.” Likewise, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the state would defend its laws and called the DOJ’s lawsuit “another blatant attempt to strip Illinoisans of resources and opportunities.”

When the DOJ filed a lawsuit late last year challenging Virginia’s policies providing in-state tuition benefits to undocumented students, state officials initially filed a joint motion with the federal government to have them struck down. 

However, Virginia switched its stance in January, when a Democratic governor and attorney general replaced the outgoing Republican administration. The cases in California, Illinois and Virginia are still pending. 

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about whether it planned to appeal the Minnesota case.