On October 1, 2026, the Department of Justice sued the University of Delaware, seeking to challenge its policy of granting in-state tuition rates to residents of Delaware regardless of their immigration status, continuing the series of similar lawsuits initiated by the DOJ challenging in-state tuition policies.
The complaint alleges that the university’s policy which provides reduced tuition to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States while denying the same reduced tuition to U.S. citizens who do not reside in Delaware violates the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. DOJ argues that IIRIRA restricts states from making preferential postsecondary education benefits, such as in-state tuition, available to undocumented students, unless a U.S. citizen or national is eligible for such a benefit regardless of whether they are a resident of that state.
Accordingly, the Department seeks to enjoin the university from enforcing its policy and from adopting similar tuition policies that would provide preferential treatment to undocumented students rather than U.S. citizens.
This is the Department’s 26th action challenging similar policies providing in-state tuition to undocumented students across various states. Read our previous posts about similar lawsuits here.