California has served as a petri dish for bad, big-government policies for generations, and one recent example has Americans of all stripes up in arms. Republican State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio addressed a policy providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in California while Americans are forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars more if they aren’t residents of California. In a recent social media post, he denounced the practice as unfair, deriding leftist California leadership for prioritizing undocumented aliens over the Americans students who want to attend college in the Golden State: Here’s the same video in a different format as backup: HOLY CRAP! Democrats approved a system in California ensuring illegal aliens are prioritized for taxpayer tuition OVER US citizens. pic.twitter.com/mzSpEOJ4GW This is a complete and utter betrayal. “California Democrat politicians have now enacted a new rule that treats… — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 10, 2025 Of course, DeMaio isn’t the only one calling foul. The White House has taken notice of this trend and hopes to put an end to it at the federal level. As the Associated Press reported: The Trump administration has sued California for providing in-state college tuition, scholarships, and state-funded financial aid to students who aren’t legally in the United States. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges the practice harms U.S. citizens and encourages illegal immigration. Among the defendants are the state, top state officials, and the state’s two public university systems, the University of California and California State. President Donald Trump’s administration has filed similar lawsuits against policies in other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas. Half the country now has similar laws to California’s. In June, after the administration sued, Texas ended its decades-old law. And Florida last year scrapped its law that allowed in-state tuition for high school graduates who weren’t in the country legally. Plenty of other social media users were similarly incensed: FACT: California gives out HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to undocumented immigrants to attend college. That’s hundreds of millions of OUR taxpayer dollars to subsidize college for non-Americans. How about using those tax dollars for the fire victims that @GavinNewsom is… — Hunter Eagleman (@Hunter_Eagleman) December 10, 2025 Unfortunately, California isn’t alone. States from coast to coast have been experimenting with such policies for years. 18 states are offering in-state tuition at colleges for #IllegalAliens — this is unconstitutional because US citizens from out of state have to pay out-of-state tuition!Is there no American citizen student/parents who care #Illegals get preferential treatment?! @TheJusticeDept pic.twitter.com/IgYK7Zp2R1 — California Condor (@Condor_Law) April 14, 2019 For that reason, the Trump administration’s decision to take on California has attracted widespread attention and support: Federal government sues California, claiming state-funded scholarships and loans for undocumented students violate federal law. pic.twitter.com/DzP07ISfQ3 — Robert Gouveia Esq. (@RobGouveiaEsq) December 11, 2025 Here’s some more about the White House’s lawsuit, per Inside Higher Ed: “California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. California marks the sixth state the federal government has sued over such policies, but unlike some of the others, California plans to fight back. The state is home to more than 102,000 undocumented students, who have been permitted to pay in-state tuition rates since 2001 if they met certain requirements. Undocumented students have also been allowed to access state financial aid for more than a decade, according to the Higher Education Immigration Portal. Newsom has repeatedly pushed back on the Trump administration’s policies, including immigration crackdowns. The DOJ filed another lawsuit against the state on Monday, after Newsom signed a bill banning face coverings for federal immigration agents. The DOJ also recently sued Newsom and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber over the state’s redistricting plan. Bondi said in her statement that the DOJ will “continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.” But Newsom isn’t backing down. “The DOJ has now filed three meritless, politically motivated lawsuits against California in a single week,” Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in a statement to Inside Higher Ed. “Good luck, Trump. We’ll see you in court.” By contrast, Texas and Oklahoma, faced with similar lawsuits this summer, swiftly sided with the DOJ, quashing in-state tuition benefits for their undocumented students. The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education also agreed to stop offering in-state tuition to noncitizens in September, a few months after the DOJ sued, but the legal battle is ongoing. A judge recently allowed a group of Kentucky undocumented students, represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to intervene in the case. Legal fights in Minnesota and Illinois have also continued as the states defend their in-state tuition policies against DOJ challenges. Here’s some additional on-air discussion of the Trump lawsuit via Fox News: