“The Department of Justice is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise that illegal aliens will not receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment over America’s own citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “As our Nation marks 250 years of freedom, we will continue to challenge state laws that place aliens over citizens in clear defiance of Congress’s commands.
DOJ sues Rhode Island over college tuition benefits for noncitizens
by Nolan Page, Rhode Island Current
June 30, 2026
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday added Rhode Island and Massachusetts to the list of states it is suing over higher education tuition benefits for noncitizen residents.
A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Providence and another in U.S. District Court in Boston claim that laws in each state discriminate against U.S. citizens and incentivize illegal immigration.
In the Rhode Island case, the Trump administration called three state laws unconstitutional: one qualifying noncitizens who meet certain criteria for in-state tuition and two qualifying them for state-funded scholarships. The DOJ argued these laws violate the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, under which federal law overrides conflicting state legislation.
The complaint claims the state superseded a federal law barring noncitizens from receiving postsecondary education benefits unavailable to out-of-state U.S. citizens.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said in a news release.
The complaint challenges three laws, beginning with the Student Success Act, which codified eligibility requirements for in-state tuition at Rhode Island’s public postsecondary institutions into law in 2021. Those requirements mirrored the residency policy set by the state’s Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner.
Out-of-state students pay over twice as much as in-state students at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Rhode Island College (RIC). At URI, in-state students pay about $15,684 for annual full-time tuition, while out-of-state students pay about $37,350, according to the university’s website. The DOJ complaint misstated that the university “charges non-Rhode Island residents approximately $17,116,” which is actually in-state tuition for graduate students.
The other two contested laws adopt the residency policy in their eligibility requirements for the Rhode Island Hope Scholarship, which covers two years of free tuition at RIC for state residents, and Rhode Island Promise Scholarship, which provides two years of free tuition at the Community College of Rhode Island.
On June 18, Gov. Dan McKee signed legislation amending the policy in the Student Success Act to expand eligibility for in-state tuition by reducing the number of consecutive years a student must attend a Rhode Island high school from three to two.
The complaint uses language from the existing law, with the change set to take effect Wednesday, July 1.
In a footnote in its complaint, the DOJ said the new law “in no way cures the current, unconstitutional statute given it further loosens the requirement.”
The footnote also said the amendment was introduced on Feb. 27. According to the General Assembly’s website and the bill text, the legislation (H8252/S2650) was introduced on March 6.
In the complaint, the DOJ wrote that the statutes adhering to the residency policy “engage in blatant unequal treatment favoring illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states,” which it called “squarely prohibited and preempted by Congress.”
The DOJ named as defendants the state, the Rhode Island Board of Education, Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education and Commissioner of Postsecondary Education Shannon Gilkey.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner acknowledged a request for a comment but did not follow up with a response as of late Tuesday afternoon.
The Rhode Island case was assigned to Chief Judge John McConnell Jr.
A dozen states targeted
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are the only New England states on the list of 12 states the DOJ has filed complaints against for providing noncitizen residents with higher education benefits not available to out-of-staters.
The others are California, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.
The DOJ has successfully challenged noncitizen higher education benefits in four states, including in its first complaint in June 2025 against Texas, where, within a matter of hours, a federal judge blocked a state law that gave undocumented students a tuition break. The other three states to see laws nullified are Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Most recently, on June 24, the DOJ filed a complaint against Kansas for giving tuition breaks to noncitizens. The dispute led to a consent decree, but a judge has yet to finalize the agreement.
The DOJ’s complaints have cited Congress’ Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which declares that “aliens within the Nation’s borders [should] not depend on public resources.” The act, passed in 1996, also says it’s in the government’s interest “to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.”
The 12 DOJ complaints also mentioned two executive orders by President Donald Trump in 2025.
The first, issued on February 19, orders federal departments to ensure “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.” The second, from April 28, instructs officials to stop laws “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,” specifically mentioning state laws providing noncitizens with tuition benefits.
“These Executive Orders emphasize that Federal and state governments must not confer greater benefits to illegal aliens present in our Nation than to U.S. citizens,” the complaint states.
The Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General will defend the state in federal court. Attorney General Peter Neronha is term-limited and four Democrats and one Republican have declared their candidacy to run for the four-year office.
Tim Rondeau, spokesperson for Neronha, said Tuesday afternoon that the attorney general’s office has yet to receive the DOJ’s complaint, adding that the state’s tuition laws “have served all Rhode Islanders well.”
“The public can be reassured that this office will continue to aggressively defend this state’s laws against unlawful overreach by this administration,” Rondeau said.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
The Department’s efforts have already delivered several victories for the American people, as four similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have resulted in favorable orders permanently enjoining and declaring unconstitutional analogous laws that gave reduced tuition to illegal aliens. Lawsuits against other states that similarly place illegal aliens ahead of U.S. citizens are pending across the country in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, and Kansas.
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