Justice Department Sues Penn State Over In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students; Complaint Cites Yearly Gap of More Than $23,000

The Justice Department sued Pennsylvania State University on Thursday, asking a federal court to block the school's policy of offering in-state tuition to undocumented students who meet its residency rules.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, names the university and its Board of Trustees. It argues the policy violates a 1996 federal law that bars states and schools from giving residence-based college benefits to people who are not lawfully present unless U.S. citizens from other states are eligible for the same benefit.

The Digital Free Press reviewed the 14-page complaint.

Penn State's Policy and the Price Gap

The complaint quotes Penn State's own guidance: "Undocumented students, with or without DACA, can be eligible for in state tuition if they meet Penn State's residency requirements." Those requirements include attending an accredited Pennsylvania high school for at least four years and graduating, or earning a Pennsylvania GED, according to the filing. "Nothing in the Undocumented Student Policy's criteria requires lawful presence in the United States for in-state tuition eligibility," the department wrote.

The complaint puts numbers on the difference. It says Penn State charges Pennsylvania residents between $41,772 and $46,680 for one academic year, compared with $65,468 to $71,876 for non-Pennsylvania and international students. At the Commonwealth Campuses, it says a Pennsylvania resident's yearly costs range from $34,452 to $41,180, against $44,454 to $54,196 for nonresidents. By TDFP's math, the gap at the low and high ends of the main ranges is about $23,700 and $25,200 a year.

The law at the center of the case, 8 U.S.C. 1623(a), says a person "who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State" for "any postsecondary education benefit" unless a U.S. citizen is eligible "without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident." The complaint says, "There are no exceptions."

A Policy, Not a State Law

The department also makes a second argument. Under another federal provision, 8 U.S.C. 1621(d), a state can make people who are not lawfully present eligible for state public benefits only through a state law enacted after 1996. The complaint argues that Penn State's rule "is not an enactment of state law," so it fails that test as well. It cites a March 2026 ruling against a Kentucky regulation on the same ground.

The United States asks the court to declare the policy preempted and unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause, and to issue a permanent injunction barring the university from enforcing it "or any similar subsequent policy."

The 27th Such Lawsuit

The department said in a release that the case brings its total to 27 lawsuits challenging in-state tuition for people in the country illegally. It said six of those cases, in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas, have produced orders permanently blocking similar laws.

"Congress long ago made clear that states, through their public universities, cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans," Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in the release.

The complaint is signed by Brian D. Miller, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division.

Sources: United States v. The Pennsylvania State University (M.D. Pa.), complaint filed Nov. 5, 2026, as released by the Justice Department (https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1470386/dl?inline); U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Nov. 5, 2026 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-files-complaint-against-pennsylvania-state-university-challenging-its); Penn State, Information for Undocumented Students (https://www.psu.edu/resources/first-year-students/undocumented).