Nebraska reached a consent agreement with the Department of Justice this week to stop enforcing its law allowing illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at public colleges.
The state also agreed to void laws that allow illegal immigrants to collect scholarship money and other financial assistance.
The Justice Department said the policies violated federal law, which prohibits states from giving illegal immigrants tuition benefits that aren’t available to everyone regardless of residence. Everyone must get the benefit or an illegal immigrant must be treated as any other nonresident, the department said.
Nebraska agreed.
“Nebraskans expect that illegal aliens won’t get the benefit of in-state tuition and financial aid, and federal law forbids it,” said Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican. “Outdated Nebraska laws to the contrary are deeply misguided and unconstitutional.”
The consent agreement needs a judge’s approval. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher, a Trump appointee.
Nebraska joins Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky in reaching consent agreements overturning state laws and erasing in-state tuition policies for illegal immigrants.
Similar lawsuits were filed against Illinois, Virginia, California and Minnesota.
A judge in the Minnesota case has ruled in favor of the state, saying its policy ties in-state tuition not to residency but to whether a student graduated from a high school in the state. That means someone who lives outside the state but attends a private school in Minnesota to be eligible, allowing the law to survive federal scrutiny.
Minnesota’s case developed quickly, with the Justice Department filing a complaint and then the department and the state filing a consent decree.
“Nebraska’s unconstitutional and un-American laws should never have been passed in the first place and are prohibited by federal law,” said Brett A. Shumate, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department.
