Federal judge guts Illinois DREAM Act and in-state tuition for immigrants

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was dealt a serious authorized blow Friday after a federal judge gutted key state legal guidelines offering in-state tuition, monetary assist and scholarships to unlawful immigrants, marking one other win for the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration agenda.

US District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee serving within the Southern District of Illinois, sided with the Department of Justiceruling that Illinois’ in-state tuition insurance policies, the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act are “unconstitutional and invalid” as they apply to unlawful immigrants.

The completely ruling prevents Illinois from imposing the legal guidelines, though McGlynn delayed the order from taking impact for 14 days to permit the state to ask an appeals courtroom to intervene.

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US Attorney Steven Weinhoeft celebrated the ruling.

“Illinois sought to incentivize illegal immigration on the taxpayer’s dime by treating illegal aliens better than US citizens living in other states, in clear violation of federal law,” Weinhoeft mentioned in a press release. “This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the State from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.”

The determination is the most recent victory for the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle state legal guidelines extending larger schooling advantages to unlawful immigrants and comes someday after the Department of Justice filed an analogous lawsuit towards Colorado.

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The Justice Department filed the lawsuit towards Illinois and a handful of schools in September 2025, arguing Illinois violated federal regulation by providing in-state tuition and monetary assist to unlawful immigrants with out making those self same advantages accessible to all US residents no matter the place they reside.

McGlynn granted the federal authorities’s movement for abstract judgment and denied Illinois’ movement to dismiss.

The ruling invalidates Illinois’ in-state tuition guidelines, the RISE Act, which offers entry to state monetary assist for sure college students ineligible for federal assist, and the Illinois DREAM Act, which established scholarship alternatives for eligible college students.

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Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill. praised the choice on

“This is a win for Illinois taxpayers and American students who were shut out while Pritzker prioritized foreigners in our country illegally,” Miller wrote.

President Donald Trump and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP through Getty Images)

The Justice Department has received or reached settlements in related circumstances involving TexasKentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska, with Nebraska agreeing to finish in-state tuition advantages for unlawful immigrants as a part of a settlement. Lawsuits stay pending towards Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland and Colorado.

In its lawsuit filed Thursday against Coloradothe Justice Department argued the state’s ASSET Act and associated insurance policies unlawfully present decrease tuition charges and state monetary assist to unlawful immigrants whereas denying those self same advantages to out-of-state US residents.

“For three decades, Congress has made clear that Colorado cannot give education benefits to illegal aliens that it does not give to all American citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward mentioned. “By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Colorado is not only violating federal law but subsidizing education for illegal aliens at taxpayers’ expense.

Jared Polis, governor of Colorado, speaks to members of the media in the spin room after the first vice presidential debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York Oct. 1, 2024 (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Our litigation efforts won’t stop till now we have fulfilled President Trump’s promise that unlawful aliens won’t acquire preferential remedy over our nation’s personal residents.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ office defended the state’s policies.

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“The federal authorities seizing management of figuring out in-state tuition throughout the nation is absurd,” a Polis spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital. “In Colorado, we’re increasing entry to schooling to supply college students with the abilities to get good-paying jobs and doubling down on methods to save lots of college students cash.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Pritzker’s office for comment.