Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department has sued seven states to challenge their tuition policies for undocumented students.
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The Department of Justice is challenging state laws in Virginia that allow eligible undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.
This is the seventh state the Trump administration has sued over such policies. Some states have fought the Justice Department, while several Republican-led states quickly agreed to stop offering undocumented students in-state tuition. The rapid change in policies spurred confusion and chaos for students as they scrambled to find ways to pay for their education. Some advocacy groups have sought to join the lawsuits to challenge the Justice Department.
Trump lawyers argued in the Virginia lawsuit and elsewhere that such policies discriminate against U.S. citizens because out-of-state students aren’t eligible for in-state tuition. In Virginia, undocumented students can qualify for the reduced rate if they graduated from a state high school and if they or their parents filed Virginia income tax returns for at least two years before they enroll at a postsecondary institution.
The Justice Department is asking a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to bar the state from enforcing the laws granting in-state tuition to undocumented students.
The lawsuit comes amid a transition of power in Virginia, so it’s not clear how the state will respond to the legal challenge. Republicans currently lead the state, but Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, will take over Jan. 17. Neither current officials nor Spanberger responded to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
