In yet another legal blow, a federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit trying to overturn Minnesota’s policy of giving in-state tuition rates to certain immigrants without legal status.
The case, heard by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, argued that Minnesota’s policy is pre-empted by the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which states that “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
Specifically, the Trump administration pointed to the Resident Tuition Statute, its use in the Resident Student Statute that defines a “resident student,” and these laws’ use in qualification for the North Star Promise program for free tuition. They argued that technically, the way this is worded, some immigrants could qualify for free tuition that similarly situated citizens could not.
Menendez rejected this argument by pointing out that the tuition law doesn’t solely apply to people who live in Minnesota, or universally apply to all people in the state; the requirements, she noted, are residency-neutral, only turning on how many years have been completed at a Minnesota high school.
“The plain text of § 1623 is clear: it does not preempt the Minnesota statutes because the Resident Tuition Statute does not determine eligibility for Resident Tuition on the basis of residence. Defendants’ Motion [to dismiss] is granted,” wrote Menendez.
This comes as judges around the country find Trump’s administration has been trying to illegally rewrite the law across the board, from immigration law to even infrastructure law.
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