Federal judge strikes down Illinois immigrant tuition laws in Trump admin victory

A federal judge in Illinois has invalidated two state laws that allowed undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition and access state financial aid, handing the Trump administration another victory in its effort to strip education benefits from noncitizens across the country.

U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn, appointed by Trump and serving in the Southern District of Illinois, ruled Friday that the state's RISE Act and Illinois DREAM Act are unconstitutional as applied to undocumented immigrants. The decision permanently blocks Illinois from enforcing these policies, though McGlynn gave the state 14 days to ask an appeals court to step in. The Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit in September 2025, argued that Illinois violated federal law by offering tuition breaks and financial aid to undocumented immigrants without extending the same benefits to all U.S. citizens regardless of their home state.

U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft framed the ruling as a matter of fairness to American taxpayers and citizens. "Illinois sought to incentivize illegal immigration on the taxpayer's dime by treating illegal aliens better than U.S. citizens living in other states, in clear violation of federal law," he said in a statement. The Justice Department's position rests on a reading of federal statute that it says prevents states from granting education benefits to undocumented immigrants that they do not make available to all Americans.

The Illinois case is one piece of a much larger federal campaign. The Justice Department has already won or settled similar cases involving Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. Nebraska agreed to end in-state tuition benefits for undocumented immigrants as part of a settlement. Lawsuits remain pending against nine other states: Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Colorado. On Thursday, the same day the Illinois ruling came down, the Justice Department filed suit against Colorado over its ASSET Act, which provides lower tuition rates and state financial aid to undocumented immigrants.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, speaking about the Colorado case, invoked a three-decade-old congressional directive. "For three decades, Congress has made clear that Colorado cannot give education benefits to illegal aliens that it does not give to all American citizens," he said. "Our litigation efforts will not cease until we have fulfilled President Trump's promise that illegal aliens will not obtain preferential treatment over our nation's own citizens."

Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois celebrated the ruling on social media, calling it "a win for Illinois taxpayers and American students who were shut out while Pritzker prioritized foreigners in our country illegally." Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office pushed back, arguing that the federal government should not control tuition policy across the country. "In Colorado, we are expanding access to education to provide students with the skills to get good-paying jobs and doubling down on strategies to save students money," a spokesperson said.

The ruling leaves undocumented immigrant students in Illinois facing a sharp change. Those who had relied on in-state tuition rates and state financial aid will lose access to those programs. The 14-day delay before the order takes effect gives the state a narrow window to seek emergency relief from a higher court, but the judge's decision suggests a legal landscape increasingly hostile to state-level education benefits for noncitizens. With cases pending in nine more states and the Justice Department signaling it will continue pursuing these suits, the question is no longer whether individual states can maintain these programs, but how many will be forced to abandon them.