The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit this Wednesday against the state of Colorado to challenge its laws that allow immigrant students without legal status to access tuition at resident rates and financial aid programs at public universities, considering that such provisions contravene federal legislation and discriminate against American citizens.

The legal action is part of the strategy promoted by President Donald Trump's administration to eliminate state benefits intended for people who are in the country without documents and constitutes the fourteenth federal lawsuit filed with this objective since the beginning of the legal offensive.

In the lawsuit, the federal government maintains that Colorado law requires higher education institutions to offer tuition at resident cost to foreigners who can prove they live in the state, regardless of their immigration status, in addition to allowing them to access scholarships and financial assistance financed with state resources.

Deputy Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the case revolves around compliance with a federal rule that has been in place for three decades.

“For three decades, Congress has made clear that states cannot provide educational benefits to immigrants without legal status unless those same benefits are available to all American citizens,” Woodward stated.

The official added that, in the federal government's opinion, "by granting immigrants in-state tuition, Colorado is violating federal law and subsidizing the education of immigrants without legal status at the expense of taxpayers."

For his part, Deputy Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, maintained that the litigation represents a matter of strict legal interpretation.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: Universities cannot offer benefits to students without legal status that they do not offer to American citizens,” he said. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated as second-class citizens in their own country.”

The government bases its lawsuit on the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which states that a state cannot grant residency-based higher education benefits to unauthorized immigrants unless those same benefits are available to all U.S. citizens, regardless of the state in which they reside.

The lawsuit asks the court to enjoin the enforcement of Colorado's laws related to preferential in-state tuition and also to stop it from continuing to provide scholarships and financial aid to undocumented students.

The litigation against Colorado joins a series of similar actions taken by the Department of Justice against states governed by administrations that maintain college access programs for undocumented students.

According to the agency, it has already obtained favorable resolutions in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska, while litigation remains open against Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland.

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