‘Illegal immigrants cannot be given benefits that are not available to American citizens’ says Virginia AG

Virginia’s outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares quickly agreed to a consent decree to resolve a Justice Department lawsuit filed against the state in late December challenging laws allowing students in the country illegally to qualify for in-state tuition and financial aid at public colleges and universities.

“In a joint court filing, Miyares and lawyers for the Justice Department asked a federal judge to declare the Virginia Dream Act invalid and bar state authorities from enforcing it. If approved, the joint consent decree order would make Virginia the fourth state to scrap its policies that allow eligible undocumented students to pay the lower in-state tuition rate,” Inside Higher Ed reported Jan. 2.

“The joint agreement came just one day after the Trump administration sued Virginia over its in-state tuition policies—the seventh such lawsuit.”

A Dec. 30 news release from the Justice Department announcing the lawsuit had stated: “These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates, scholarships, or subsidies, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal immigrants with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, all in direct conflict with federal law.”

A Jan. 1 social media post by Miyares echoed that notion.

“It is clear that the Northam-era statute on in-state tuition eligibility is preempted by federal law,” he posted on X. “Illegal immigrants cannot be given benefits that are not available to American citizens. Rewarding non-citizens with the privilege of in-state tuition is wrong and only further incentivizes illegal immigration. I have always said I will call balls and strikes, and I am proud to play a part in ending this unlawful program.”

According to Axios, the Virginia lawsuit represented the “latest example of the DOJ’s push to limit states from offering tuition benefits to undocumented immigrants, without which higher education could be inaccessible to the nation’s estimated 850,000 undocumented minors.”

Reuters reported that under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department has also “filed at least six lawsuits challenging similar policies in Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota and California.”

“Texas and Oklahoma, both led by Republican governors, quickly settled by agreeing to consent decrees blocking enforcement of their state laws.”

Similarly, Virginia followed suit, prompting an appeal, WRIC reported: “In a Dec. 31 joint press release, the Legal Aid Justice Center, the ACLU of Virginia and the Dream Project announced that they had filed an emergency motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit that took aim at both undocumented and refugee students in Virginia.”

“The Attorney General of Virginia has abandoned his duties to defend Virginia law and the people of the Commonwealth, so we must,” said ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg in the release. “Attorney General Jason Miyares has sided with the Department of Justice — intentionally working in secrecy and over a holiday weekend — to manufacture a predetermined outcome to deprive Virginian students of not only their futures but their day in court.”

MORE: U. Virginia agrees to end DEI practices in settlement with Justice Dept.