The lawn and rotunda at the University of Virginia. (Leigh Ann Speake / Getty Images)
By Jaryn Crouson December 30, 2025 at 11:03am
The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit accusing Virginia of unlawfully granting illegal aliens in-state resident discounts on college tuition.
The state’s education code classifies illegal immigrants as Virginia residents, qualifying them for reduced in-state tuition costs, the lawsuit claimed. This policy therefore allows illegals to access benefits not available to most other Americans, making it “not only wrong but illegal,” the Justice Department stated.
“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,” the court documents read. “There are no exceptions. Virginia violates it nonetheless. 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.”
The classification means illegal immigrants are able to pay nearly $40,000 less than Americans who reside in another state. In the 2025-2026 school year, the University of Virginia charged in-state students $23,897 in undergraduate tuition, while out-of-state students paid $62,923, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Federal immigration law asserts that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State… for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit… without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident,” as cited in the lawsuit.
The Trump administration has sued several states already over similar laws giving benefits to illegals over American citizens. In June, Texas even teamed up with the Justice Department to defeat its own law allowing illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition costs in the red state.
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on agencies to ensure “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.” The order included mention of preventing states from using taxpayer funds from subsidizing illegals and attempting to hinder deportation efforts.
The federal government in July ended a Clinton-era rule that allowed illegal immigrants to access taxpayer funds for technical and career schools, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported exclusively.
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