President Donald Trump’s U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Kansas on Wednesday, asking a federal judge to tear down the law that allows college students without lawful immigration status to receive in-state tuition.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach promptly joined the DOJ, jointly asking the court to prohibit Kansas universities, colleges and state officials from enforcing the 2004 law that gives in-state tuition rates to Kansas students who have been accepted at a Kansas college or university and attended high school for at least three of the last four years, graduated from an accredited high school or earned an equivalent certificate in Kansas.
The DOJ argued in court filings that the state law discriminates against U.S. citizens, incentivizes illegal immigration and rewards scholarship benefits that U.S. citizens who don’t live in Kansas can’t receive.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate from the department’s civil division said Kansas’ laws are “unconstitutional and un-American,” and “should never have been passed in the first place.”
“The Department of Justice has won on this exact issue in Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nebraska, and we will take this fight to any states that fail to put American citizens first,” Shumate said.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly also filed a motion to intervene in the case, arguing Kobach was refusing to defend a Kansas law that for more than two decades guided application of in-state tuition rates at higher education institutions.
“There are many ways that we could, and should, work together to fix this country’s broken immigration system,” Kelly said. “However, the federal government using its resources to target Kansans who were brought to the United States as children does nothing to solve the fundamental issues our nation faces. In pursuing higher education, these young Kansans are a net-benefit to our entire state, gaining the education and training needed to be valuable members of our workforce and contribute to our economy.”
State Sen. Mike Thompson, a Republican from Shawnee, sponsored legislation this year that would have prevented Kansas residents without lawful immigration status from receiving state and local public benefits, expressly targeting Kansas students without lawful immigration status. It passed both chambers without veto-proof majorities. It was vetoed by Kelly.
“There were some legislators from areas in Kansas that would not vote for SB 254 because they have a bunch of illegal aliens in their districts,” Thompson wrote Wednesday in a Facebook post, proceeding to further criticize Republican and Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill.
He also said he was “confident we’ll lose the federal lawsuit.”
“The supremacy clause always prevails. And I will redraft SB 254 and introduce it again next session,” he said, “so that Kansas will conform with federal law on this matter. As legislators, we should be all about protecting Kansas taxpayers, not handing out goodies to those who shouldn’t even be here.”
Thompson said Kelly’s office was warned the state could face a legal challenge over the in-state tuition measure.
Upon vetoing Thompson’s bill in April, Kelly called it “cruel” and “not in the best interest of the state.”
DOJ officials praised Kobach for joining their efforts. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said Kobach’s cooperation was a “commonsense correction.”
Ryan Kriegshauser, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, said the proposal to block the law “demonstrates the quality of partnership between Kansas state leaders and the Department of Justice for the shared purpose of ensuring that federal tax dollars are not used to discriminate against Kansas’s lawful citizens.”
Micah Kubic, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the DOJ’s action was a coordinated attack from the federal government and Kobach on Kansas children. He said Kobach was “so determined to collude with the Trump-Vance administration that he will misuse our courts to attack the laws of the very state he serves.”
A spokesperson for Kobach’s office did not immediately respond to Kansas Reflector’s request for comment.
For more than 20 years, in-state tuition has given Kansas students opportunities to become healthcare workers, teachers, attorneys and other professionals, Kubic said.
“This is an aggressive attempt to slam that door shut and punish young Kansans who dare to dream,” he said.
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
