Kansas Becomes Sixth State Forced to End In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants as DOJ Tuition Fight Hits 21 States

Since the Department of Justice began suing states last year over in-state tuition breaks for illegal immigrants, the tally has grown to 21 states sued and six court wins for the administration. The newest win came Wednesday night in Kansas, where U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter, a Trump appointee, issued a permanent injunction against a law that had let certain immigrant students pay in-state tuition since 2004.

Teeter's order relied on the DOJ's core argument: federal law bars states from giving unlawfully present immigrants a residency-based tuition discount unless every U.S. citizen, regardless of where they live, gets the same deal. "The central problem here is that there are United States citizens and nationals who pay full nonresident tuition when an unlawfully present alien is eligible to pay a lower rate on the basis of residence," Teeter wrote, according to the Lawrence Times.

What made the Kansas case unusual is who signed off on killing the law. Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, a longtime opponent of the tuition statute, joined the DOJ in proposing the consent judgment that ended it, rather than defending the law Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly wanted to keep. Kelly tried to intervene and get the case dismissed. Teeter denied that motion, along with a separate motion from the ACLU of Kansas and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund seeking to let affected students join the case.

The ACLU of Kansas called the result a "collusive judgment." Staff attorney Jessica Swonger said the court "allowed the Department of Justice, in collusion with Attorney General Kobach, to slam the door on hardworking Kansas students." U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser took the opposite view at a Thursday press conference, saying the law "violated the supremacy clause then as it does now" and that he'd flagged the problem as a law clerk two decades ago.

With fall semester bills coming due next week, it's unclear whether Kansas campuses can apply the higher out-of-state rates in time, according to the ACLU of Kansas.

Four More States, Same Fight

On a separate front, the DOJ filed suits against Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, arguing their tuition laws "favor illegal aliens over U.S. citizens," according to Courthouse News Service. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the four states are "pushing citizens to the side and ignoring federal law."

The dollar gaps are real. The DOJ's complaint shows University of Washington in-state tuition at $13,406 for 2026-27 versus $44,460 out-of-state, a $31,054 spread. At Arizona State University, the DOJ previously estimated illegal immigrant students received roughly $10.5 million in reduced tuition, with 432 noncitizen students receiving in-state rates in fall 2025 out of an estimated 720 statewide, according to Fox News and Courthouse News.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said his state won't back down. "Washington state won't be bullied into changing how we provide opportunities for young people in our state," he wrote on social media. "We'll see them in court, and we expect to win." Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek questioned the administration's priorities, saying it should focus on affordability instead of attacking laws that have been "successful for a decade." New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham did not comment, according to Higher Ed Dive.

Arizona's law is different in structure from the others, and Attorney General Kris Mayes is making a specific legal argument worth taking seriously. Arizona's Proposition 308, passed by voters in 2022, ties eligibility to where a student attended high school and graduated, not where they currently reside. Mayes' office argues that distinction puts the law outside the federal statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1623, which only bars benefits granted "on the basis of residence." "Some Arizona residents will not be eligible for in-state tuition," Mayes said, while some people eligible for in-state rates won't be state residents. Whether that argument holds is now a live question for a federal judge, not a settled fact.

The DOJ's win-loss record stands at six wins to one loss. Minnesota beat the DOJ in court, and that ruling is now on appeal to the 8th Circuit. Fifteen more states, including California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Colorado, still have active cases pending, according to Breitbart and the DOJ's own case list.

The core legal question, whether tying tuition eligibility to high school attendance rather than current residency gets around the federal preemption statute, hasn't been decided in any of the four newest cases. Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington are all expected to litigate that question in the months ahead, and the outcome will determine whether the DOJ's winning streak keeps extending west.