A federal judge in Richmond has thrown out the Trump administration's legal challenge to Virginia's law letting certain undocumented students pay in-state college tuition, preserving a benefit that more than 1,200 students used during the 2025–2026 academic year. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Payne ruled Monday that the commonwealth's 2020 tuition equity law is not preempted by federal immigration restrictions, delivering a win for Virginia in a case that had put the fate of thousands of students' education costs in limbo.
As reported by WJLA, the judge rejected arguments that Virginia's policy violates federal law. According to Courthouse News Service, Judge Payne found that Virginia's statute does not run afoul of 8 U.S.C. § 1623 because the state's higher education guidance explicitly bars undocumented students from the residency-based domicile pathway used by other students. Instead, the tuition equity pathway relies on high school attendance and tax history rather than legal residency, a distinction that proved decisive in the ruling.
How the Numbers Break Down for Virginia Families
The stakes for students are considerable. Average annual undergraduate tuition at Virginia public institutions during the 2025–2026 school year ran roughly $10,000 for in-state students compared to more than $28,000 for out-of-state students, excluding room and board, per the same Courthouse News Service account citing State Council of Higher Education for Virginia figures. Attorney General Jay Jones argued that undocumented students who grew up in Virginia should be treated as Virginia students for tuition purposes, and families of those students have paid Virginia taxes, WJLA reports.
The Department of Justice's broader case drew on comparisons from other states to argue the financial impact of such policies is substantial. The department cited an Arizona example in which in-state and out-of-state tuition differed by about $24,000 per student, with 432 undocumented students receiving the lower rate, totaling a little more than $10 million a year, according to WJLA.
A Law Born From a 2020 Legislative First
Virginia's General Assembly passed the Virginia Dream Act, known formally as HB 1547 and SB 395, in April 2020, making Virginia the first Southern state to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students who complete two years of high school in the state and whose parents file state income taxes, according to the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. The law took effect on July 1, 2020, a full five years before it became the target of a federal lawsuit.
That lawsuit traces back to December 31, 2025, when the U.S. Department of Justice sued Virginia, claiming the state violated federal law by granting tuition benefits to noncitizens that weren't available to out-of-state U.S. citizens, as reported by Slate. The federal government's challenge centered on Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1623, which restricts states from granting postsecondary benefits to undocumented noncitizens based on state residence unless the benefit is extended to all U.S. citizens, per Hoodline's earlier coverage of similar lawsuits.
A Political Reversal Inside the Attorney General's Office
The case took a dramatic turn in Virginia's own government. Former Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares asked the court to declare the Virginia Dream Act invalid with just over two weeks left in his term, and reached an agreement with the DOJ on December 30, 2025, that remained subject to court approval; newly sworn-in Democratic AG Jay Jones promptly withdrew from the agreement upon taking office to defend the law in court, Slate reported. That reversal set up the legal fight that Judge Payne resolved Monday.
Civil rights organizations including the Legal Aid Justice Center, the ACLU of Virginia, and the Dream Project filed an emergency motion to intervene in the federal suit to defend the law on behalf of impacted students, according to a statement from the Legal Aid Justice Center. Chris Hajec, deputy general counsel for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, discussed the decision, the judge's reasoning, and what could come next, WJLA noted.
Part of a Nationwide Legal Battle
Virginia's case did not happen in isolation. President Trump's Executive Order 14218, signed on February 19, 2025, prompted the Department of Justice to file federal lawsuits against public higher education systems in more than 25 states, creating a nationwide conflict over tuition equity policies, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. Hoodline has tracked that campaign through lawsuits against Delaware and Hawaii, among other states.
The outcomes elsewhere have been mixed, underscoring why Virginia's ruling matters beyond its own borders. A federal judge previously blocked Illinois's tuition law in favor of the DOJ, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a separate court fight that overturned that state's long-standing in-state tuition statute. Virginia's ruling now stands in contrast to those outcomes, creating a split among federal courts on the same underlying legal question.
The judge anticipated an appeal, and WJLA reports the case is expected to continue through the courts as opponents and supporters weigh legal arguments that could either uphold or reverse the decision. For now, the ruling leaves Virginia's tuition equity law intact and the savings it provides to more than 1,200 students in place.
