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Oklahoma attorney general Gentner Drummond filed a motion in support of the federal government’s legal challenge to in-state tuition for noncitizens.
Bill Clark/CQ–Roll Call Inc./Getty Images
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Oklahoma Tuesday over a state law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates. Oklahoma is now the fourth state the DOJ has sued for having such a policy.
The state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, swiftly sided with the federal government and filed a joint motion in support of quashing the law. He said in a statement that it’s “discriminatory and unlawful” to offer noncitizens lower in-state tuition rates “that are not made available to out-of-state Americans.”
“Today marks the end of a longstanding exploitation of Oklahoma taxpayers, who for many years have subsidized colleges and universities as they provide unlawful benefits to illegal immigrants in the form of in-state tuition,” Drummond said.
A judge the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma granted the joint motion to end the law on Thursday. Anyone who opposes the recommendation has three days to object to it.
“We are deeply disappointed by Oklahoma’s decision to repeal in-state tuition eligibility for undocumented students,” Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance, said in a statement. “Even more alarming is the emerging pattern of using litigation to roll back longstanding policies that enjoy broad support from educators, communities, and local leaders. These backdoor legal tactics silence the voices of those who know that access to higher education is essential for a thriving state.”
Oklahoma’s quick support for the legal challenge is reminiscent of what happened in Texas when the DOJ sued the state in June: Within hours of the lawsuit, Texas sided with the Justice Department and a judge ruled in favor of a permanent injunction, ending in-state tuition for noncitizens. The DOJ then filed similar lawsuits against Kentucky and Minnesota, though those legal fights are still ongoing.
The lawsuits follow an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in April calling for a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities and state laws unlawfully “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,” citing in-state tuition benefits for noncitizens as an example.
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