Federal district courts disagree on whether college students with TPS and DACA qualify for in-state tuition

At least two federal district courts have come to conflicting conclusions as to whether college students with TPS and DACA qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued seven states challenging their in-state tuition laws and regulations that make state residents with TPS and DACA eligible for in-state tuition. Read our previous post on these lawsuits here. Federal district courts have since published opinions on the matter that conflict with each other. For example, in March 2026 a federal district court in Kentucky adopted a joint consent decree between the Trump Administration and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The consent decree declared that Kentucky’s in-state tuition policy for students with DACA and TPS conflicted with federal law and therefore violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, that same month a federal district court in Minnesota dismissed a lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s “Dream Act” tuition provisions for undocumented students.

The Department of Justice has appealed the Minnesota federal district court decision to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a Latino civil rights group is planning to appeal the Kentucky federal court decision to the Sixth Circuit. It is possible that both circuit courts could also come to opposite conclusions on whether undocumented students are eligible for in-state tuition, and a circuit split like this would provide the Supreme Court with a strong incentive to consider the issue.