Oklahoma moves to cancel in-state tuition for illegal immigrants after DOJ prod

Oklahoma and the Trump Justice Department have reached a deal to overturn the state’s law that has allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates.

The two sides filed a joint motion in federal court this week saying they agree that the state law conflicts with a federal law that bars states from offering illegal immigrants any tuition deals that aren’t available to out-of-state U.S. citizens.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond called his state law “discriminatory.”

“Today marks the end of a longstanding exploitation of Oklahoma taxpayers, who for many years have subsidized colleges and universities as they provide unlawful benefits to illegal immigrants in the form of in-state tuition,” he said.

Oklahoma’s policy allows students who graduated from high school in the state and have lived in the state for at least the last two years of high school to claim in-state status.

That same treatment is not given to out-of-state students, nor, for that matter, foreign students who come legally to study at state schools, the federal lawyers said.

“This unequal treatment of Americans is squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law,” Elianis Perez, a Justice Department lawyer, said in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to restore the legal distinctions between illegal immigrants and citizens, after four years or Biden attempts to muddy the line.

The Justice Department now regularly labels illegal immigrants as unauthorized foreigners in its press releases, reversing a previous practice that had often labeled illegal immigrants as residents of a particular state.

And the department had previously sued Texas and Kentucky to overturn their in-state tuition policies.

Kentucky’s attorney general has urged his state to acquiesce, but Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is fighting.

In Texas, the state signed a consent agreement with the Justice Department that immediately halted the law. Illegal immigrant students have moved to intervene in the lawsuit there to try to restore the tuition break.