US Sues New Jersey Over Tuition Breaks for Undocumented Students

The federal government sued New Jersey for extending to undocumented students eligibility for in-state tuition, grants, scholarships, and financial aid at public colleges.

For over a decade, the state has ignored federal law prohibiting undocumented individuals from getting tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state residents attending state colleges and universities, Justice Department lawyers said in a complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

State provisions extending those benefits to undocumented immigrants are blatantly discriminatory, the government said, and conflict with “Congress’s prohibition on providing eligibility for postsecondary education benefits based on residency to illegal aliens present in the United States that are not available to all U.S. citizens regardless of residency.”

Federal law saying people who aren’t lawfully in the US aren’t eligible for in-state tuition based on their residence within a state unless a US citizen—regardless of residence—is eligible for the same benefit preempts the New Jersey provisions, the government said.

The government asked the court to permanently block New Jersey from extending state and local public benefits to undocumented aliens.

Some red states have caved when presented with similar suits. Oklahoma, for example, rolled back its in-state tuition policy for noncitizens shortly after being hit with the complaint.

“This lawsuit, the fourth the Trump Administration has filed against New Jersey in recent months, is yet another distraction,” said Michael Symons, press secretary for New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, in reply to a request for comment.

“New Jersey law is consistent with federal law, as another judge already held in rejecting a similar challenge,” Symons said.

The case is U.S. v. New Jersey, D.N.J., No. 26-cv-4862, complaint filed 4/30/26.