Trump Administration Sues California Over Undocumented Student Tuition

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Trump Administration Sues California Over Undocumented Student Tuition

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In November 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California, alleging that the state’s policies granting in-state tuition and financial aid to undocumented students are illegal. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of California, seeks to overturn a state law that has been in effect for over two decades.

The core of the legal challenge is California’s Assembly Bill 540 (AB 540), passed in 2001. This law allows undocumented students, along with certain U.S., asserting that the state’s tuition policies apply to all residents regardless of their birthplace, and therefore do not discriminate against U.S. citizens. Previous legal challenges to AB 540, including one heard by the state Supreme Court in 2010, have upheld the law, with courts determining that undocumented immigrants were not receiving preferential treatment based on their immigration status, but rather on their attendance and graduation from California schools. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that earlier case.

The lawsuit has raised concerns for an estimated 80,000 undocumented students in California who rely on these

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