A federal lawsuit challenging Virginia’s law on tuition eligibility for undocumented students has exposed a sharp divide between the state’s outgoing and incoming leadership, drawing opposition from Attorney General-elect Jay Jones and prompting intervention from immigrant and civil rights groups. 

Jay Jones

 

Jones said his team is reviewing options to respond to the suit filed last week by the Department of Justice, which argues Virginia law allowing undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition fees conflicts with federal immigration law and violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. 

“The challenged act’s discriminatory treatment in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens is squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law,” the lawsuit reads. “This Court should declare Virginia’s law, as applied to illegal aliens, preempted and permanently enjoin its enforcement.” 

Virginia is one of at least 22 states with “tuition equity” laws or policies that allow certain students attending and graduating from in-state secondary schools to pay in-state tuition fees regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center. 

Jones’ statement not only challenges the suit’s goals but its timing, as it was filed weeks before Virginia’s new administration assumes control of state government. 

“The Trump administration’s lawsuit is an attack on our students and a deliberate attempt to beat the clock to prevent a new administration from defending them,” Jones said in a statement last Friday. “This is the exact kind of federal overreach Virginians rejected in November, and it’s what I remain committed to fighting as the next attorney general.” 

The DOJ has filed suits against similar policies in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas. Oklahoma and Texas officials have already agreed to consent decrees blocking enforcement of these laws. 

Jones’ statement also responded to outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares’ support of the DOJ lawsuit, after Miyares’ administration entered into a consent decree following the filing. 

“Rewarding non-citizens with the privilege of in-state tuition is wrong and only further incentivizes illegal immigration,” Miyares said in a social media statement. “I am proud to play a part in ending this unlawful program.” 

An emergency motion to intervene in the DOJ suit was filed last week by the Legal Aid Justice Center and the ACLU of Virginia on behalf of immigrant mentorship and scholarship group The Dream Project. 

The groups, which also criticized Miyares’ choice and the suit’s timing, are seeking to have students that would be affected by the suit share their perspective before a court decision is made. 

“The Attorney General of Virginia has abandoned his duties to defend Virginia law and the people of the Commonwealth, so we must,” ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg said in a joint statement announcing the motion. 

The consent agreement is awaiting approval or rejection by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.