by Kevin Killough
The Justice Department has filed a complaint against New Jersey laws that provide in-state tuition and financial assistance to illegal immigrants.
The laws discriminate against U.S. citizens who aren’t granted the same tuition rates, scholarships and other subsidies, which is unconstitutional, according to the complaint.
“Congress made a legislative judgment that illegal aliens in our Nation cannot receive resident tuition benefits that are denied to U.S. citizens residing in other states, the complaint said.
“There are no exceptions. Yet New Jersey has ignored this legislative command for over a decade. In 2013, New Jersey passed Senate Bill 2479, codified at N.J. Stat. Ann. § 18A:62-4.4,
which extends eligibility for in-state tuition benefits at New Jersey postsecondary education institutions to illegal aliens, while requiring payment of higher tuition rates for U.S. citizens from
other states,” the complaint noted.
“These statutes blatantly discriminate in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states,” it added.
In a statement, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said, “Imagine being denied the opportunity of education in your own country. By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, the state of New Jersey is doing just that.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said that the agency wouldn’t tolerate U.S. citizens who are being treated like “second-class citizens in their own country.”
“This is a simple matter of federal law: in New Jersey and nationwide, colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” he said.
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Kevin Killough is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
