The Trump Justice Department has sued Colorado over its ASSET Act, arguing the state illegally gives illegal immigrants college tuition breaks that many American citizens from other states cannot get.
The Justice Department filed suit against Colorado this week over a 2013 voter-approved law that lets illegal immigrants pay in-state college tuition and collect state financial aid, marking the 14th lawsuit the administration has brought against a state over the same practice. The complaint targets the ASSET Act, short for Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow, along with related statutes that let students who attended a Colorado high school or established residency there qualify for resident tuition rates and aid such as the Colorado Application for State Financial Aid, regardless of their immigration status.
"For three decades, Congress has made clear that Colorado cannot give education benefits to illegal aliens that it does not give to all American citizens," Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said, according to Fox News. The Justice Department's theory rests on a federal statute barring states from offering higher education benefits tied to residency to people not lawfully present in the country, unless the state offers the same benefit to every American citizen no matter where they live. An out-of-state student from Wyoming or Kansas pays full nonresident tuition at the University of Colorado. An illegal immigrant who graduated from a Colorado high school does not.
Rather than tightening the ASSET Act as legal pressure mounted on similar laws elsewhere, Colorado moved the other direction. State lawmakers reduced the required high school attendance from three years down to one, according to Denver7 and Bloomberg Law. They also scrapped a requirement that students enroll in college within 12 months of graduating high school, and repealed a rule that had required an affidavit from students affirming they had applied, or intended to apply, for legal status. Each change expanded who could claim the tuition discount, at the same moment the Justice Department was actively suing other states over the identical arrangement.
Legislative estimates when ASSET first passed projected several hundred students a year would benefit, with figures ranging from roughly 375 to 500 illegal immigrants statewide. Colorado's public universities layer additional aid on top of the discounted tuition rate, including the College Opportunity Stipend and, at CU Boulder, grants between $2,400 and $10,300 a year funded by the state and the university. Colorado has not published a comprehensive statewide cost figure for the program, but the tuition gap alone between resident and nonresident rates at flagship schools like CU Boulder runs into the tens of thousands of dollars per student over four years.
Part of a coast-to-coast campaign
Colorado becomes the 14th state sued, joining Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland. The pattern in most of those cases has been swift: in Texas, the state's attorney general agreed within a day not to contest the lawsuit, and a federal judge struck down that state's version of the law almost immediately. Kentucky and Minnesota followed a similar script last year. Colorado's Democratic-controlled legislature and Governor Jared Polis have shown no indication they intend to fold as quickly, given that voters approved the ASSET Act directly at the ballot box rather than through a bill lawmakers could simply repeal.
That distinction may matter. A voter-approved law carries different political weight than one a legislature passed and could reverse under pressure, and Colorado officials have not yet signaled whether they will fight the suit in court or negotiate a settlement as Texas did. The Justice Department is asking a federal court to declare the ASSET Act and its related statutes unconstitutional and to award the government its legal costs.
Colorado has 21 days to respond once formally served, and the case will land in federal district court in Denver. With 13 prior lawsuits already resolved largely in the administration's favor, Colorado's response will show whether Democratic-led states plan to keep fighting these cases individually or start treating the outcome as settled law. Either way, the Justice Department has signaled it intends to keep filing until every state offering the benefit falls in line.
Also read: Full Fifth Circuit Rules Illegal Aliens Have No Right to Roam Free • DHS Has Fined Illegal Immigrants Who Defied Deportation $84 Billion • Schmitt demands feds revoke citizenship papers wrongly given to diplomats' kids
