Massachusetts and Rhode Island Provide Financial Aid and In-State Tuition to Help Immigrant Students—Now Trump Is Suing Them Over It

The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policy extends far beyond his attempts to ramp up deportations and his (now-failed) attempt to end birthright citizenship. It also seeks to deny immigrants access to opportunity, resources, and basic equal treatment. Now Trump is combining attacks on several of his favorite targets: immigrants, higher education, and blue states.

Courthouse News reports:

The Justice Department claims in two lawsuits filed Monday that Massachusetts and Rhode Island are violating federal law by offering in-state tuition and scholarships to students who live in the state but entered the country illegally. “The Department of Justice is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise that illegal aliens will not receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment over America’s own citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a DOJ statement. “As our nation marks 250 years of freedom, we will continue to challenge state laws that place aliens over citizens in clear defiance of Congress’s commands.” ...

Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston charges state residents less than $16,000 a year for tuition but students from other states pay $44,700. Rhode Island College charges state residents about $5,000 a year but out-of-state residents pay almost $14,000. ... Some 21 states have passed such tuition equity laws, and at least 14 states allow such students to receive state financial aid.

One of the Trump administration’s favorite lies is that immigrants are undeserving of help and unable to succeed in the United States. It isn’t true, of course, but their policies are designed to make it true by denying immigrants access and opportunity.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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