The Justice Department sued Virginia on Monday over its policy of granting immigrants lacking permanent legal status in-state financial aid at public colleges and universities, saying that the assistance violates federal law because it discriminates against U.S. citizens living in other states.

The complaint came as Virginia’s term-limited Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, prepares to leave office next month. He will be succeeded by the state’s Democratic governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger. It is the latest in a series of lawsuits from the Trump administration aimed at blocking states from extending tuition benefits to immigrants without legal status.

In November, the administration sued California over a similar tuition policy, and in September it brought a case against Illinois over its financial aid program for immigrants.

In June, a federal judge blocked a Texas law that provided immigrants in-state tuition.

Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition to immigrants without permanent legal status in 2001, according to the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group.

The case in Virginia centers on a section of the state’s legal code that allows students who have lived in Virginia for at least two years to qualify for in-state tuition at public universities.

In its complaint, the Justice Department argued that the provision illegally favors immigrants living in Virginia without permanent legal status over U.S. citizens who reside outside the state and would not be eligible for the reduced in-state tuition.

“This is not only wrong but illegal,” the lawsuit said. “The challenged act’s discriminatory treatment in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens is squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law.”

Youngkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of the state’s attorney general, Jason Miyares, another Republican who is due to leave office next month. The Virginia Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As of September, at least 14 states offered financial aid to students without regard to immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center, another advocacy group. But many states’ policies are shifting.

In 2020, Ralph Northam, a Democrat and then the Virginia governor, signed legislation allowing immigrants in Virginia to receive in-state tuition. At the time, Northam said the law underscored that the students were “Virginians, in every sense of the word, except for the immigration status,” according to WTOP-FM.

State Sen. Jennifer B. Boysko, a Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation, said in an interview Monday night that she was unsurprised by the lawsuit, saying that she expected the Trump administration to move to penalize the state as Democratic leadership takes over.

But she said the complaint left her “sad for the individuals who were doing everything that they were supposed to and are going to be penalized if this holds.”

Mark Keam, a Democratic former member of the Virginia House of Delegates who was another co-sponsor, said he was concerned that the Trump administration was moving toward challenging Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision that found children who are immigrants without permanent legal status have a constitutional right to free public education through high school. “By going after the in-state tuition for college students, they’re heading down that road,” Keam said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tim Balk/Kirsten Luce
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