DOJ Sues Colorado Over Tuition Breaks for Illegal Aliens
National News - The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit yesterday against Colorado, challenging state laws that give illegal aliens in-state tuition and financial aid at colleges and universities. The lawsuit claims these laws favor illegal aliens over U.S. citizens who do not qualify for the same reduced rates or scholarships.
According to the complaint, Colorado's laws create an incentive for illegal immigration by rewarding people who broke immigration laws with benefits that citizens cannot access. The Department says this puts the laws in direct conflict with federal law, which Congress has enforced for three decades.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. said, "For three decades Congress has made clear that states cannot provide education benefits to illegal aliens unless those same benefits are available to all American citizens. By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Colorado is violating federal law and subsidizing education for illegal aliens at the taxpayers' expense. This Department will not cease until President Trump's promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to our Nation's own citizens."
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division also spoke about the lawsuit. He said, "This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens. This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country."
The complaint asks a court to stop Colorado from enforcing laws that require colleges to give in-state tuition rates to any alien living in the state, even if that person is not in the country legally. It also asks the court to stop the state from giving those same aliens financial aid and scholarships that citizens outside the state cannot get.
This is the 14th lawsuit the Department has filed challenging in-state tuition laws for illegal aliens nationwide. Four similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska already led to rulings that permanently blocked those states from offering the reduced tuition. One of those rulings came from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Department also has lawsuits pending in several other states. Those states include Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland.
