{"id":318319,"date":"2026-08-11T02:12:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318319\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T02:12:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:12:39","slug":"justice-dept-files-complaints-against-three-more-states-over-tuition-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318319\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Dept. files complaints against three more states over tuition laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice building is shown in Washington, D.C. The department has filed complaints against three more states &#8212; New York, Connecticut and Vermont &#8212; alleging that tuition laws benefiting undocumented students are discriminatory. File Photo by Bonnie Cash\/UPI | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/News_Photos\/lp\/f96b99025789ab7e8f381493173a3551\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">License Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aug. 10 (UPI) &#8212; The U.S. Justice Department on Monday filed complaints against New York, Connecticut and Vermont over state laws that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/department-justice-files-complaints-against-new-york-connecticut-and-vermont-challenging\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">department said in a release<\/a> that the &#8220;Dream Act&#8221; laws &#8220;seek to undermine our nation by placing aliens over citizens in clear defiance of Congress&#8217; commands.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Congress long ago made clear that states cannot put illegal aliens over our nation&#8217;s own citizens,&#8221; Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said. &#8220;By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, New York, Vermont and Connecticut are doing just that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This makes 17 states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/US\/2026\/07\/17\/latam-us-DOJ-Maryland-Dream-Act\/6251784271096\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">targeted by the Justice Department<\/a> over the laws, which it says discriminate against the citizens who pay higher out-of-state tuition rates. Undocumented students also can apply for financial aid in some states.<\/p>\n<p>In response, William Tong, attorney general of Connecticut, said the president does not run any of the state&#8217;s colleges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtnh.com\/news\/connecticut\/department-of-justice-sues-connecticut-for-allegedly-providing-non-citizens-in-state-tuition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WTNH-TV reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Note to Trump &#8212; Stay out of Connecticut,&#8221; Tong said. &#8220;How we run our schools and teach our kids is none of your business, and you have no authority to force the sovereign state of Connecticut to deny our kids a future.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>Tong said he would fight to defend Connecticut students from what he called &#8220;a cruel attack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Connecticut offers in-state tuition and financial aid to all eligible Connecticut students because all kids deserve the opportunity to learn, to advance and to achieve their drams,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Laws in the 17 states that offer such Dream Acts vary, with different requirements and qualifications for those applying, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.migrationpolicy.org\/commentary\/mapping-patchwork-state-dream-acts-and-postsecondary-education-policies-unauthorized\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Migration Policy Institute said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The New York act, for example, is called the Senator Jos\u00e9 Peralta New York State DREAM Act. Students apply once to be eligible for in-state tuition and, then, if approved, can also apply for financial aid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Justice building is shown in Washington, D.C. The department has filed complaints against three more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50,27,4107],"class_list":["post-318319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}