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Ongoing story / United States Department of Justice

The Justice Department's suits against in-state tuition for undocumented students

Overview · reviewed November 12, 2026

Since June 2025 the Justice Department has sued a growing list of states and universities over policies that let undocumented students pay in-state tuition, arguing that federal law bars states from giving immigrants education benefits not offered to all US citizens.[1][2][3] Texas ended its program within hours of being sued,[4] and by August 2026 the department said it had won five similar cases.[3]

Read the timeline

Follow this story to see new developments when you return.

Texas ended its program within hours of being sued,[4] and by August 2026 the department said it had won five similar cases.[3]

Coverage over time

Share of tracked outlets · weekly (UTC)

Week of 2025-06-02 (UTC): 7%, 14 of 189 tracked outlets (6 left, 3 center, 5 right)Week of 2025-06-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-30 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-07 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-14 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-21 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-28 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-04 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-11 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-18 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-25 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-01 (UTC): 4%, 7 of 177 tracked outlets (0 left, 3 center, 4 right)Week of 2025-09-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-10 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-17 (UTC): 4%, 7 of 189 tracked outlets (1 left, 3 center, 3 right)Week of 2025-11-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-29 (UTC): 4%, 7 of 166 tracked outlets (1 left, 1 center, 5 right)Week of 2026-01-05 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-12 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-30 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-04 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-11 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-18 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-25 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-13 (UTC): 2%, 10 of 559 tracked outlets (3 left, 5 center, 2 right)Week of 2026-07-20 (UTC): 1%, 4 of 562 tracked outlets (0 left, 1 center, 3 right)Week of 2026-07-27 (UTC): under 1%, 2 of 561 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 1 right)Week of 2026-08-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-10 (UTC): 4%, 23 of 545 tracked outlets (9 left, 6 center, 8 right)Week of 2026-08-17 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-24 (UTC): 2%, 11 of 466 tracked outlets (1 left, 7 center, 3 right)Week of 2026-08-31 (UTC): under 1%, 1 of 475 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 0 right)Week of 2026-09-07 (UTC): 2%, 11 of 480 tracked outlets (1 left, 8 center, 2 right)Week of 2026-09-14 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-21 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-28 (UTC): 1%, 6 of 476 tracked outlets (1 left, 4 center, 1 right)Week of 2026-10-05 (UTC): 1%, 3 of 479 tracked outlets (0 left, 0 center, 3 right)Week of 2026-10-12 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-10-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-10-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-11-02 (UTC): 3%, 15 of 471 tracked outlets (4 left, 7 center, 4 right)Week of 2026-11-09 (UTC): under 1%, 1 of 473 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 0 right), so far

LeftCenterRightLighter bar: this week so far

Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 3 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.

Weekly counts, outlets and reports (15 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)LeftCenterRightOf trackedShareReceipts
Nov 9, 2026 (so far)1001 of 473under 1%
Nov 2, 202647415 of 4713%
Oct 5, 20260033 of 4791%
Sep 28, 20261416 of 4761%
Sep 7, 202618211 of 4802%
Aug 31, 20261001 of 475under 1%
Aug 24, 202617311 of 4662%
Aug 10, 202696823 of 5454%
Jul 27, 20261012 of 561under 1%
Jul 20, 20260134 of 5621%
Jul 13, 202635210 of 5592%
Dec 29, 20251157 of 1664%
Nov 17, 20251337 of 1894%
Sep 1, 20250347 of 1774%
Jun 2, 202563514 of 1897%

Latest coverage

The newest reporting in this story's record.

  1. Nov 5, 2026 · first reported · Headline from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    Trump's DOJ sues Penn State over in-state tuition policy for undocumented students

Background

The first suit, against Texas in June 2025, ended almost at once: US District Judge Reed O'Connor blocked the state's in-state tuition for undocumented students hours after the department filed it.[1][4] Suits against Illinois, California and its university systems, and Virginia followed in 2025.[5][6][7] In 2026 the department sued Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas,[8][2][9][10] filed three more suits in August and another three in September, including one against Utah,[3][11] and sued the University of the District of Columbia and the University of Delaware.[12][13] On November 5 it sued Pennsylvania State University over its tuition policy.[14]

Supporting stories (14)
  1. Federal judge blocks Texas law allowing in-state tuition for students without legal residency
  2. DOJ Sues Colorado Over In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students
  3. DOJ targets 3 more states in effort to axe in-state tuition for immigrants
  4. Trump DOJ Exposes University of Delaware Charging Americans $26,730 More than Illegal Immigrants
  5. DOJ sues Illinois over migrant tuition benefits as Trump, Pritzker feud
  6. Trump administration sues California over giving in-state tuition to immigrants in US illegally
  7. DOJ sues Virginia over in-state tuition for undocumented students
  8. DOJ sues Maryland challenging law awarding in-state tuition to illegal immigrants
  9. DOJ sues Washington over in-state tuition
  10. U.S. Department of Justice sues Arkansas over alleged preferential treatment of students from outside the country
  11. DOJ sues Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah, D.C. over in-state tuition laws
  12. Justice Department sues UDC over in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants
  13. DOJ expands tuition crackdown with University of Delaware lawsuit; New Mexico case remains pending
  14. DOJ Sues Penn State Over In-State Tuition for Noncitizens

The full record

Each date is when an update was first reported.

All 14 recorded updates

November 2026

  1. DOJ Sues Penn State Over In-State Tuition for NoncitizensHeadline from Inside Higher Ed · 17 outlets

October 2026

  1. Trump DOJ Exposes University of Delaware Charging Americans $26,730 More than Illegal ImmigrantsHeadline from Blue State Blues News · 3 outlets

September 2026

  1. DOJ expands tuition crackdown with University of Delaware lawsuit; New Mexico case remains pendingHeadline from Border Report · 6 outlets
  2. U.S. Department of Justice sues Arkansas over alleged preferential treatment of students from outside the countryHeadline from KARK Little Rock · 3 outlets
  3. Justice Department sues UDC over in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrantsHeadline from WTOP Washington DC · 2 outlets
  4. DOJ sues Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah, D.C. over in-state tuition lawsHeadline from UPI · 7 outlets

August 2026

  1. DOJ sues Washington over in-state tuitionHeadline from The Columbian · 12 outlets
  2. DOJ targets 3 more states in effort to axe in-state tuition for immigrantsHeadline from Louisiana Illuminator · 22 outlets

July 2026

  1. DOJ Sues Colorado Over In-State Tuition for Undocumented StudentsHeadline from Inside Higher Ed · 6 outlets
  2. DOJ sues Maryland challenging law awarding in-state tuition to illegal immigrantsHeadline from WTOP Washington DC · 10 outlets

December 2025

  1. DOJ sues Virginia over in-state tuition for undocumented studentsHeadline from NBC News · 7 outlets

November 2025

  1. Trump administration sues California over giving in-state tuition to immigrants in US illegallyHeadline from KVOA Tucson · 8 outlets

September 2025

  1. DOJ sues Illinois over migrant tuition benefits as Trump, Pritzker feudHeadline from UPI · 7 outlets

June 2025

  1. Federal judge blocks Texas law allowing in-state tuition for students without legal residencyHeadline from Seattle Times · 14 outlets

Coverage & sources

Read the reports, see how much was collected over time, or compare outlets by political leaning.

Coverage & sources →