Colorado has become the latest state caught in the Trump administration‘s push to end laws that allow undocumented students to pay the same in-state college tuition rates as other eligible residents.
The US Department of Justice has sued Colorado over its tuition and financial aid rules, arguing that the state is breaking federal law. Colorado, however, is not backing down and has indicated that it plans to defend its policy in court.
DOJ challenges Colorado tuition law
The Department of Justice filed the lawsuit on Thursday, saying Colorado’s tuition and financial aid laws unfairly give undocumented immigrants access to lower tuition fees and scholarships without offering the same benefits to all US citizens, no matter which state they live in.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to permanently stop Colorado from enforcing the laws.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the case is about fairness to American citizens. He argued that federal law has long prevented states from giving education benefits to undocumented immigrants unless those same benefits are also available to every US citizen.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Division, made a similar argument. He described the case as a basic legal question about whether colleges can treat US citizens less favourably than people who are not citizens.
The Colorado lawsuit is the 14th such case filed by the Justice Department across the US.
The department has already won similar cases in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has also issued a ruling in favour of the federal government.
Other cases are still pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland.
Colorado says it will fight the lawsuit
The centre of the Colorado case is the ASSET Act, a state law that is now 13 years old. Signed in 2013, the law was expanded in 2022 to allow more students to qualify. Under the law, undocumented students who meet certain residency and education requirements can pay in-state tuition and receive financial aid from the state.
Colorado officials have made it clear that they do not plan to quietly give up the policy.
A spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis criticised the lawsuit as federal overreach. The spokesperson argued that decisions about who qualifies for in-state tuition should be made by individual states, not the federal government.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has also spoken out against the lawsuit. Johnston, who sponsored the original ASSET Act when he was a state senator, told Axios that Denver plans to fight the case alongside the state.
Johnston also pointed out that the original law had support from both political parties. Republican lawmakers and university leaders backed the measure because they saw it as an investment in building a better-educated workforce.
Part of a wider fight over undocumented students
The Colorado lawsuit is part of a much larger legal battle taking place across the country.
The Trump administration has been challenging state laws that give undocumented students access to in-state tuition and other education benefits.
Federal courts have already struck down similar laws in Texas and Oklahoma. Kentucky agreed to end its programme after facing a lawsuit from the Justice Department.
However, the federal government has also faced setbacks. Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed a similar case involving Minnesota.
The Justice Department has now filed 14 lawsuits as it continues its effort to challenge state tuition policies for undocumented students.
What happens next?
The Colorado case will now move through federal court.
The state will try to defend one of its longest-running higher education policies against a Justice Department that has already won several cases based on the same legal argument in other states.