Washington, October 2, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The US Justice Department has sued the University of Delaware, challenging its policy that allows some students without lawful immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition while US citizens living outside Delaware may have to pay higher non-resident rates.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Delaware on Thursday, is part of a broader Justice Department effort to challenge state laws and university policies that provide in-state tuition to undocumented students. The department said the Delaware case is its 26th such lawsuit.
According to the Justice Department’s complaint, the university’s residency policy violates federal law by making a post-secondary education benefit available to people who are not lawfully present in the US without making the same benefit available to US citizens regardless of their state of residence.
The allegations have not been adjudicated by a court.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the department would continue challenging policies that it believes give preferential treatment to undocumented immigrants over US citizens.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said federal law does not permit colleges to provide such benefits to undocumented students without extending the same benefit to US citizens.
The federal complaint asks the court to block the University of Delaware from enforcing its policy allowing eligible residents of Delaware to receive in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status. It also seeks to prevent the university from adopting future tuition policies that the government says would provide similar benefits based on immigration status.
The legal dispute centres on Section 1623 of the federal immigration law, which restricts states from providing post-secondary education benefits based on state residence to people who are not lawfully present unless US citizens and nationals are eligible for the same benefit regardless of where they live.
The Justice Department said six earlier cases involving Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas have resulted in court orders favourable to the federal government’s position. It listed pending cases involving several other states and jurisdictions, including California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, Minnesota, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
The University of Delaware’s publicly available residency guidelines state that students are classified as in-state or non-resident for tuition purposes and can seek reclassification if they believe their residency status has changed.
For the 2026-27 academic year, the university lists undergraduate tuition for certain programmes at $656 per credit hour for Delaware residents and $1,770 for non-residents.
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