❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Trump administration is suing Minnesota over a law allowing illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates while U.S. citizens from other states are charged higher fees.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Trump administration, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), Minnesota Democrats, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
📍WHEN & WHERE: The lawsuit pertains to a recently passed Minnesota law.
💬KEY QUOTE: “No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
🎯IMPACT: The lawsuit challenges Minnesota’s attempt to bypass federal law, which prohibits states from offering lower tuition rates to illegal aliens while charging higher rates to U.S. citizens.
The Trump administration is suing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and his state over a law that allows illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at public colleges, arguing it violates federal law and unfairly disadvantages American citizens from other states.
The law, known as the North Star Promise, grants illegal alien students in-state tuition rates if they can prove they live in Minnesota and attended school there. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens from other states must pay significantly higher out-of-state rates.
Federal officials argue this policy breaks federal law prohibiting states from offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants unless the same benefit is extended to all U.S. citizens, regardless of residency. “No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Minnesota Democrats attempted to sidestep the federal restriction by making tuition eligibility based on high school attendance rather than state residency. Under the law, illegal alien students who attended a Minnesota high school qualify for in-state tuition, while U.S. citizens who went to high school outside the state do not.
Critics see this as a dubious legal loophole intended to flout the intent of federal law. Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) general counsel Christopher J. Hajec stated, “For Minnesota, it’s not enough to let illegal aliens, who are not permitted to live in the United States at all, into its state schools, and apply lower admission standards to instate illegal aliens than to out-of-state Americans. Even after all that, Minnesota also lets them pay much less in tuition than out-of-state Americans have to pay. That’s where federal law and its supremacy come in, however.”
This lawsuit follows another move by the Trump administration to terminate a Clinton-era policy allowing illegal immigrants to access federally funded career, technical, and adult education programs. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared, “Postsecondary education programs funded by the federal government should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
She promised that under the Trump administration, “hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities.”
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