The entrance to the University of Delaware is shown before a college basketball game between the Missouri State Bears and the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens at the Bob Carpenter Center on December 29, 2025 in Newark, Delaware. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
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The Trump administration is suing the University of Delaware over a tuition policy that allows certain illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state rates while American students from outside Delaware are charged thousands more.
The Justice Department argues the policy illegally gives undocumented students a financial benefit based on residency that is not offered on the same terms to U.S. citizens, making Delaware the latest target in the administration’s nationwide crackdown on immigration-related tuition benefits.
The DOJ alleges the University of Delaware charges Delaware residents approximately $15,740 per academic year, compared with approximately $42,470 for non-Delaware residents, coming to a $26,730 annual difference, with nonresident tuition roughly 2.7 times resident tuition.
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It also alleges qualifying illegal immigrants can receive the $15,740 resident rate while U.S. citizens living outside Delaware are charged the higher rate, holding that the school is breaking federal law by putting the needs of illegal immigrants ahead of U.S. citizens, according to the DOJ’s press release, and is challenging the university’s policy which allows in-state tuition for illegal aliens while withholding reduced tuition to U.S. citizens.
It invokes 8 U.S.C. §1623(a), which says an immigrant who is not lawfully present cannot receive a state-residency-based postsecondary education benefit unless U.S. citizens can receive that benefit regardless of their state residency, and argues UD’s policy therefore conflicts with federal law.
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Additionally, it says the policy is independently unlawful under 8 U.S.C. §1621 because the benefit was established through university policy rather than an enacted Delaware state law. DOJ describes the policy as being “preempted twice over,” and also calls the policy “blatant unequal treatment.”
“This Department of Justice’s efforts will not cease until we have challenged every state law or university policy that gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our nation’s own citizens,” Stanley E. Woodward Jr., associate attorney general, said in a statement.
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“Congress long ago made clear that states cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans,” he added. “When a state attorney general allows her own state to violate federal law, this department must step in to enforce it.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the University of Delaware said, “The University of Delaware is aware of the complaint filed last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, and we are reviewing it carefully. Because this is a pending legal matter, we will not comment further at this time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.