By Mark Swanson | Tuesday, 30 December 2025 11:04 AM EST
The Department of Justice sued the University of Virginia on Monday, alleging that its policy granting tuition benefits to illegal aliens discriminates against U.S. citizens from other states.
Virginia law permits individuals who have lived in the state for at least a year to qualify for in-state tuition and explicitly bars schools from denying eligibility based on immigration status.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, argues 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.”
“This is not only wrong but illegal,” read the 13-page complaint. “The challenged act’s discriminatory treatment in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens is squarely prohibited and pre-empted by federal law.”
The lawsuit represents the latest action by the Trump administration to block states from offering tuition benefits to illegal aliens. Similar legal challenges have been filed against California in November and Illinois in September, with the Department of Justice also suing Oklahoma.
While the DOJ has reached agreements with three Republican-led states, Democrat-run Illinois and California continue to contest the federal challenges.
In June, a federal judge struck down a Texas law that allowed illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition.
Virginia’s then-Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed legislation in 2020 allowing illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition. At the time, Northam stated the law recognized students as “Virginians, in every sense of the word, except for their immigration status.”
The lawsuit asserts there are no exceptions: “Virginia violates it nonetheless,” the complaint states. “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.”
As of September, at least 14 states provided financial aid to students regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center. However, a growing number of states are beginning to roll back or reconsider those policies.
