The Department of Justice is challenging Minnesota laws that grant illegal immigrants reduced or free college tuition.
The DOJ argued that the laws discriminate against U.S. citizens, echoing arguments pushed against similar laws in Texas and Kentucky. A press release from the DOJ said the laws conflict with federal law, making them illegal under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
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“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice just won on this exact issue in Texas, and we look forward to taking this fight to Minnesota in order to protect the rights of American citizens first.”
The DOJ cited Trump’s executive orders from February and April as prompting the move. The April executive order, “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens,” specifically cited laws giving reduced or free in-state tuition to illegal immigrants as one of the laws “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.”
The DOJ sued Kentucky over its own laws providing reduced or free in-state tuition to illegal immigrants last week. Bondi’s statement announcing the lawsuit echoed the statement announcing the Minnesota lawsuit almost word-for-word.
FEDERAL JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ON TEXAS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TUITION LAW
Earlier this month, the Trump administration won one of its clearest victories regarding illegal immigrant tuition laws in Texas, when U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor quickly ruled in favor of the lawsuit. He agreed with the administration’s argument that the law violated the supremacy clause and was “unconstitutional and invalid.”
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Bondi said in a statement celebrating the Texas decision. “The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.”