DOJ Sues University Of Delaware: Illegal Aliens Get In-State Tuition, Out-Of-State Americans Pay 2.7x More
The Justice Department has sued the University of Delaware, alleging the school “grants in-state tuition for illegal aliens while denying reduced tuition to U.S. citizens.”
The math comes straight from UD’s own 2026-27 cost-of-attendance page. Undergraduate tuition for Delaware residents is $15,740. For non-residents it is $42,470.
A qualifying illegal alien who went to high school in Delaware pays the first number. A US citizen from Pennsylvania or Maryland pays the second. That is a $26,730-a-year premium for the crime of being an American from the wrong state, or roughly $107,000 over four years at current rates, before fees.
To qualify, according to NBC Philadelphia, a non-citizen must have attended a Delaware high school for at least three years, graduated there or earned a GED, lived with a legal guardian while in school, enrolled at UD within 18 months of graduating, and provided evidence of permanent residency or an application for U.S. citizenship.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said:
“This Department of Justice’s efforts will not cease until we have challenged every state law or university policy that gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our Nation’s own citizens. Congress long ago made clear that states cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate added that “colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” and that the department “will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
Delaware is the 26th such lawsuit from the Trump DOJ. The department says it has already secured favorable court orders against six states: Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas.
UD, for its part, said it is “aware of the complaint” and “reviewing it carefully,” and declined further comment on a pending legal matter.
Not every challenge has gone DOJ’s way: in March, a federal judge dismissed the department’s suit against Minnesota’s tuition policy with prejudice.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 10/05/2026 – 19:40