Virginia Joins States Sued by DOJ Over Noncitizen Student Aid

Virginia unlawfully provides in-state tuition rates and other financial aid to noncitizens who aren’t legally in the US while denying the same benefits to citizens who aren’t Viriginia residents, the Trump administration says in a new lawsuit against the commonwealth.

Federal law prohibits states from providing undocumented residents not lawfully present in the US with any postsecondary education benefit that’s denied to citizens, according to a US Department of Justice suit filed Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. “There are no exceptions. Virginia violates it nonetheless,” the federal government says.

The DOJ has targeted several other jurisdictions with similar lawsuits in recent months, including prominent blue states such as Illinois and California, with a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) calling the suit “politically motivated” and vowing to fight it in court. Kentucky took a different path, agreeing to end a policy allowing individuals unlawfully in the US to get reduced in-state tuition rates.

Representatives for Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), and incoming Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D), set to replace him Jan. 17, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Virginia law clearly classifies illegal aliens as state residents based on certain conditions, a classification that makes them eligible for reduced in-state tuition and state-administered financial assistance for public state colleges and universities, while US citizens from other states are ineligible for the reduced tuition, the DOJ says.

“This is not only wrong but illegal,” the suit claims. “The challenged act’s discriminatory treatment in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens is squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law.”

US law provides that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States” isn’t eligible on the basis of residence within a state for any postsecondary education benefit unless US citizens are also eligible for such a benefit, the DOJ says.

Virginia’s law permitting aliens unlawfully present in the US to qualify for reduced in-state rates and assistance—permitted in the state since 2022—"affirmatively removes immigration status as a barrier to establishing domicile and obtaining in-state tuition benefits,” the complaint says, and it allegedly provides a “pathway” to tuition assistance with various conditions, including tying in in-state tuition eligibility to attendance at Virginia public high schools.

"[T]o the extent Virginia law ties in-state tuition eligibility to attendance” at state public high schools, “the General Assembly relied on an existing residency determination embedded in its K-12 education laws, rather than creating a separate, non-residency-based pathway to subsidized tuition,” the complaint says.

That residency-based structure, the government says, conflicts with federal law, which says states can’t provide such benefits to unlawful aliens unless citizens have the same benefits. The provisions, “as applied to illegal aliens, are preempted under the Supremacy Clause” and are therefore unconstitutional, it says.

DOJ is asking the court to enter a judgment declaring that Virginina laws applied to aliens are not lawfully present in the United States violate the Supremacy Clause. It’s also seeking a permanent injunction, as well as and costs and fees.

The case has been assigned to Judge Robert E. Payne.

The Justice Department represents the United States.

The case is United States v. Commonwealth of Virginia, E.D. Va., No. 3:25-cv-01067, complaint 12/29/25.