The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania State University on Wednesday, alleging the school's tuition policy violates federal law by giving undocumented students an advantage over U.S. citizens who pay more to attend the same classes. The complaint marks the latest move in a sweeping, nationwide campaign the department has waged against colleges and states that offer discounted tuition rates to students without legal immigration status.
“Today, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania State University for violating federal law by prioritizing the needs of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens,” the department said in a statement announcing the suit, as reported by Justice News. The department argues Penn State's policy grants in-state tuition to students who are not lawfully present while denying that same reduced rate to U.S. citizens, and says the arrangement defies Congress's commands and conflicts with federal law.
At the center of the dispute is 8 U.S.C. § 1623, which bars colleges from giving someone who is not lawfully present in the country a postsecondary education benefit based on state residency unless U.S. citizens are eligible for a benefit of equal value regardless of where they live. That statutory language is the legal hook the Justice Department has used in a wave of similar lawsuits across the country, though the evidence provided does not establish how a court will apply it specifically to Penn State's policy.
Conflicting Accounts of Penn State's Current Policy
Exactly what Penn State's policy says today is murky, and the two sources describing it do not agree. Penn State's own admissions page states that undocumented students, with or without DACA status, can be eligible for in-state tuition if they meet the university's residency requirements, including attending and graduating from a Pennsylvania high school or earning a GED in the state.
But the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, which tracks these policies nationally, reports a different picture: that Penn State has updated its residency guidelines and undocumented students are no longer eligible for in-state tuition under that policy. The evidence does not establish when any such change took effect or how it squares with the university's own published guidance, and it remains unclear which version reflects the policy the Justice Department is now challenging in court.
Penn State's admissions page does make clear that undocumented students and DACA recipients are not eligible for federal student aid, and notes that Pennsylvania currently has no state policies governing financial aid access for undocumented students. Applicants who identify as DACA, undocumented, Deferred Enforced Departure, or Temporary Protected Status are asked to pay a $65 application fee, per the same page.
Part of a Much Bigger Legal Campaign
Penn State is far from alone. The Justice Department has filed 25 lawsuits challenging policies that make undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition, according to Inside Higher Ed. Those lawsuits have already ended in-state tuition discounts for undocumented students in Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and most recently Kansas, the outlet reports.
Higher Ed Dive has separately described the department's broader litigation strategy as lawsuits against 24 states and the District of Columbia, and notes the department recently sued the University of Delaware over its own in-state tuition policy for certain undocumented students. The department's most recent prior batch of filings, before Wednesday's Penn State complaint, targeted Arkansas, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, and Utah, Inside Higher Ed reported in September.
The campaign hasn't gone entirely the department's way. A federal judge dismissed the department's lawsuit against Minnesota in March.
What's at Stake for Pennsylvania Students
Data cited by Inside Higher Ed from the Higher Ed Immigration Portal estimates more than 180,000 undocumented college students attend school in states that have already ended discounted tuition rates, while another 220,000 live in states where litigation is still ongoing — a group that now includes Pennsylvania.
Whether or how Penn State plans to respond to the lawsuit was not addressed in the available evidence, and no court ruling on the complaint has been reported. For now, the case adds Pennsylvania to a growing list of states where the legal fight over who qualifies for a tuition discount is still being decided in federal court.
