SerpApi.Org
Thousands of California students would pay 10 times more to attend a community college - and nearly four times as much to go to a UC campus - if a Trump administration lawsuit against the state’s higher education system is successful.
The lawsuit takes aim at California statutes allowing students who attend high school in the state to pay in-state tuition and apply for financial aid at its public colleges, regardless of immigration status. The litigation is part of a broader effort by the federal government to dismantle programs benefitting undocumented immigrants at public universities throughout the country.
“This would have a significant impact on our students,” said Sonia Ortiz-Mercado, associate vice chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District, which serves the Sacramento area. “They could end up not pursuing their education.”
A federal judge in Sacramento is expected to rule at any time on whether the case can proceed. The effort is one of several lawsuits and formal investigations involving higher education in California on such topics as immigration, affirmative action, allegations of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In its complaint, filed late last year, the Trump administration says California laws authorizing in-state tuition and financial aid for undocumented students should be declared illegal. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice cite a federal statute barring states from offering educational benefits to undocumented students without offering the same advantages to U.S. citizens - even if those citizens reside in other states.
But California Attorney General Rob Bonta says the state’s 25-year-old law does include nonresidents who are U.S. citizens. These students are also eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid if they attended high school or its equivalent in California for three years and meet all requirements.
For this reason, the state’s lawyers say, the case should be dismissed. U.S. District Court Judge Troy Nunley is considering their motion to do so and will soon decide the lawsuit’s fate.
Financial aid also challenged
The exact number of unauthorized immigrants attending California’s public colleges and universities is difficult to pinpoint. But in 2022, about 62,000 undocumented students benefitted from in-state tuition at community colleges, a report to the Assembly Committee on Higher Education said. Another 10,000 attended a California State University while 4,000 were enrolled at the University of California, the report said.
The difference between how much they are paying now and the amount they would be charged if the programs are eliminated is stark: For residents, tuition at a Los Rios campus is $46 per unit, Ortiz-Mercado said. Out of state tuition is $475 per unit. That’s a jump from $1,104 per year to $11,400 per year, assuming a 12-unit course load each semester.
At the UC level, students paying next year’s in-state tuition of $15,588 would instead be charged $54,858. CSU students paying $6838 would pay $11,304 for two 12-unit semesters.
The lawsuit also challenges undocumented students’ eligibility for financial aid. Under the California Dream Act and related legislation known in political circles as AB540, students who qualify for in-state tuition are also eligible to apply for state grants and aid programs.
Data from the California Student Aid Commission shows that last year, about 36,000 undocumented students applied for these programs. About 28,000 have thus far submitted applications to do so when the new school year begins in the fall.
Without such aid, even the in-state tuition would have been too much for her family to pay, said Daniela De La Cruz Telles, who earned her undergraduate degree at UC Davis and now runs the university’s Undocumented Student Resource Center. As it was, she said, it took longer than four years to obtain her degree in part because of family and financial concerns. She later obtained her master’s in education leadership from Sacramento State.
About 400 students currently at UC Davis rely on the support from the in-state tuition and financial aid programs that are open to undocumented students, and some could be forced to leaved school if the assistance is deemed illegal by the courts, she said.
Over the past 10 years, the Undocumented Student Resource Center has had 87,000 visits from about 7500 individual students, De La Cruz Telles said.
Suing universities to advance policy goals
The Trump administration is certainly not the first to seek to influence education policy, said Amal Kumar, assistant professor of public policy and administration at Sacramento State.
As far back as 1862, the federal Morrill Act allowed states to establish universities on public land grants, setting the stage for a wave of agricultural and mechanical colleges. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals and National Guard troops to Oxford Mississippi to quell violence and enforce a court order requiring the segregated University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, its first Black student. More recent presidents have issued policy guidance, wielded threats of funding loss or filed lawsuits to enforce laws such as those banning sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money, or in hiring.
Presidents have engaged in policymaking at the elementary and secondary school levels as well: The No Child Left Behind law and accompanying programs during the administration of former President George W. Bush implemented standardized testing and other accountability measures. But Bush’s successor, former President Barack Obama, signed a law that reversed many of those changes.
“Education is constitutionally delegated to the states, so the federal government in principle doesn’t really have much of a role,” said Kumar. “But that hasn’t really prevented federal governments of all stripes from trying to assert some kind of role.”
But experts said the Trump administration has attempted to use both the legal system and the threat of funding losses to extract policy concessions from universities at a level that is unusual.
Since March of 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed or joined four lawsuits against public colleges in California and is conducting at least four additional investigations.
In addition to the lawsuit over in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, the actions accuse UCLA of creating a hostile and antisemitic work environment in relation to protests over Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack; and the UC system of discriminating against white men in hiring. The administration also sued UCLA’s medical school, saying it favored applicants of color in admissions despite a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action.
The broader backdrop of presidential administrations aiming to influence policy or enforce federal laws is not unusual, said Brian Soucek, a constitutional law scholar at UC Davis. It’s also common for administrations to make claims citing federal civil rights laws, or to use funding as a cudgel. What’s different is the vehemence with which the administration is pursuing its goals, he said.
“It’s very unusual,” said Brian Soucek, a constitutional law scholar at UC Davis. “The intensity of it, the unrelentingness of it, the targeting.”
Some of the lawsuits follow earlier efforts by the administration to extract concessions from universities by threatening to cut their funding, Soucek said. Since taking office in 2025, the federal government has sought settlements from the University of California, Harvard University, Columbia University and others, in relation to a variety of mostly conservative policy goals.
‘Closing the door on their aspirations’
Complaints similar to the one challenging California’s in-state tuition and financial aid laws grow out of the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, and have been filed in several states, Soucek said.
Some conservative-led states, including Texas, have moved quickly settle with the government, ending programs that offered in-state tuition or financial aid to students without authorization to live in the U.S.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, settled his state’s case within six hours of its filing by the Trump administration, an appellate court ruling connected with that case shows.
But California, which has filed one or more lawsuits per week against the federal government since Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2025, has been defending its policies in court. Within weeks of the government’s filing, Bonta formally asked Nunley to dismiss the case, arguing that it did not have merit and that California’s laws had already been tested.
Nunley in January said that he would take arguments on the matter in written form, and notify the state and the federal government if additional hearings were necessary.
The University of California said it would comply with any ruling made by the courts. But the institution defended its admissions and aid practices.
“For decades, the University of California has followed applicable state and federal laws regarding eligibility for in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarships,” the university said in a statement. “While we will, of course, comply with the law as determined by the courts, we believe our policies and practices are consistent with current legal standards.”
If the state’s law is struck down, “we are denying access to education for thousands of California students who have grown up in our communities and graduated from our high schools,” said Daisy Gonzales, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, referring to California’s law. “Closing the door on their aspirations would be a profound loss for our students, our communities, and our state’s future.”
