Fifth Circuit Rules Against In-State Tuition For Illegal Aliens

Authored by Catherine Salgado via PJMedia.com,

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Trump administration and against woke states or universities that try to provide special tuition breaks to illegal aliens.

Brett Shumate, who serves as the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division, celebrated the court win on Thursday, July 9. This is a victory not only for the Trump administration, which is trying to enforce laws at the state level against law-breaking foreigners, but also for American taxpayers, who perforce contribute to public universities that then give special deals to illegal aliens. Meanwhile, many Americans can’t afford to attend college.

It is important to note that the ruling specifically states that universities cannot provide in-state tuition to aliens when it does not provide such benefits to American nationals regardless of residency. It therefore undercuts the tuition break for foreigners on the explicit argument of it being unfair to citizens not residing in the state in question.

The case concerned whether Texas universities could provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens in defiance of federal law while denying lower tuition to non-Texas students. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, is very pleased with the new circuit court ruling. “Texas and the Trump DOJ just secured another major victory for the rule of law,” he declared. “The Fifth Circuit upheld the END of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas.”

Judicial Hub reported that the judges appointed by Ronald Reagan (Judge Jerry Smith) and Donald Trump (Judge Don Willett) issued the majority ruling while the Joe Biden-appointed Judge Irma Ramirez dissented. The ruling stated, as mentioned above, “Section 1623(a) preempts what we call the Challenged Provisions vis-à-vis illegal aliens, barring states from conferring postsecondary education benefits on any illegal alien based on residence unless the same benefit is available to all U.S. citizens and nationals irrespective of residency.”

As of October 2025, 22 states were reportedly offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens. That represents almost half of the United States. Hopefully the federal government can now enforce the restrictions given the Fifth Circuit Court ruling, presuming Democrats do not make the move they so often make of simply ignoring court decisions they dislike.

To give just one example of how unfair many universities and states can be, the University of Arizona provides advice to “DACA/Dreamer Applicants” (i.e., illegal aliens) on how to obtain in-state tuition prices and merit scholarships. The University of Arizona also slashed the amount of merit scholarships it was giving to American citizen students for the incoming fall 2026 freshman class. Maybe if the university would stop wasting money on foreigners who are not legally allowed to be present in the state, it would have more money for American students.