The Trump Justice Department has opened a new front in its nationwide fight over who receives taxpayer-supported college tuition benefits.
This time, the defendant is not a state legislature or a governor.
It is the University of Delaware.
Federal lawyers filed a civil complaint Thursday alleging that the university grants in-state tuition to illegal aliens while denying the same reduced rate to American citizens who live in other states.
The Justice Department says that arrangement violates federal law and treats U.S. citizens like second-class citizens in their own country.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the University of Delaware allows certain aliens who reside in the state to qualify for in-state tuition even when they are not lawfully present in the United States.
The government argues that Americans from outside Delaware remain ineligible for that same discount solely because they live in another state.
The lawsuit asks a federal court to block the university from enforcing the current policy. It also asks the court to stop the school from adopting any new policy that gives illegal aliens a tuition advantage unavailable to U.S. citizens nationwide.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said Congress settled the issue years ago and accused Delaware officials of refusing to follow federal law.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate called the case a straightforward question: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to American citizens.
That is the heart of the government’s argument.
The issue is not whether Delaware can offer lower tuition to its own lawful residents. States do that every day.
The issue is whether a public university may extend a residency-based education benefit to someone unlawfully present in the country while withholding that benefit from an American citizen from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Iowa or any other state.
The Justice Department says the answer is no.
Woodward announced that the Delaware complaint is the department’s 26th lawsuit challenging state laws or university policies that offer in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
Today's complaint against the University of Delaware marks @TheJusticeDept's 26th lawsuit challenging laws or policies that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens. Under @AGToddBlanche's leadership, our litigation efforts will not stop until every state or university… https://t.co/sGLaslNw7u
— Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr. (@ASGWoodward) October 1, 2026
The federal complaint relies heavily on a 1996 statute known as Section 1623. It identifies the university’s residency policy as the challenged benefit, explains why federal lawyers believe it conflicts with two federal immigration provisions and asks the court for declaratory and injunctive relief.
That law generally prohibits states from giving unlawfully present aliens a postsecondary-education benefit based on residence unless the same benefit is available to every U.S. citizen or national, regardless of where that American lives.
Federal lawyers argue that Delaware’s policy is expressly preempted under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
They also say the university cannot rely on a separate public-benefits exception because its residency policy is an administrative rule, not a state law expressly enacted after the federal requirements were considered.
The complaint cites favorable rulings or orders in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas. That list includes a Fifth Circuit decision affirming the injunction against the Texas policy.
Federal lawyers are asking for a declaration that the university’s policy is unlawful and a permanent injunction against its enforcement. The filing also asks the court to prevent materially similar replacement policies from being adopted while the federal requirements remain in force.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
No judge has ruled on the merits, and the filing presents the federal government’s allegations and legal theory—not a final judgment against the university.
A public response from the University of Delaware was not included in the Justice Department’s announcement, and no merits brief from the university was available with the initial filing.
Still, the government is entering this case with a growing string of victories.
John Solomon also shared the breaking development Thursday as the nationwide tuition fight reached Delaware.
The administration’s campaign now reaches far beyond Delaware.
The Justice Department says related lawsuits remain pending against Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah and the District of Columbia.
That list reveals the scale of the strategy.
President Trump’s Justice Department is not treating these policies as isolated local choices. It is building a national body of law designed to force every state and public institution onto the same rule: if residence earns a tuition benefit for an illegal alien, that benefit must also be available to Americans from every state.
The political argument from supporters of these policies is usually framed around students who were brought to the United States as children, grew up in a state and want an affordable path to a college degree.
That concern is real. The human stories behind these disputes deserve to be heard.
Compassion still cannot answer the legal question by itself.
Congress wrote a federal restriction that specifically addresses residency-based higher-education benefits. If public universities dislike that rule, the lawful remedy is to persuade Congress to change it—not to create an administrative workaround that disadvantages American citizens living across a state line.
The Delaware lawsuit will test whether a university policy can survive where several state laws and regulations have already fallen.
Attorney General Todd Blanche’s department is making its position unmistakable.
American citizenship will not come second at an American public university.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up. View the original article here.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
