The Justice Department sued the University of Delaware to block it from offering in-state tuition to students not lawfully in the country — while American citizens from other states pay nearly three times the rate for the same classrooms.

This is the department's 26th challenge to such policies nationwide, and the first targeting an individual university rather than a state or local government. The case lays bare the economics: universities collect tuition revenue from illegal enrollment, taxpayers subsidize the discount, and out-of-state American citizens are forced to pick up the difference.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, names the university and its board of trustees. Federal attorneys argue the school violates immigration law by offering reduced tuition to qualifying illegal Delaware residents while requiring U.S. citizens from other states to pay the full out-of-state rate.

The numbers are stark. The university lists 2026-27 undergraduate tuition at $15,740 for Delaware residents and $42,470 for nonresidents — a $26,730 annual gap before mandatory fees, housing, and meals, according to Newsmax. Its admissions guidance says undocumented students may apply as U.S. residents, while international students pay the same rates as U.S. citizens living outside Delaware.

The complaint challenges a residency policy provision covering certain noncitizens who attended Delaware high schools for at least three years. Federal attorneys contend those criteria do not require lawful presence and use high school attendance as a substitute for Delaware residency.

The department cites Section 1623 of federal immigration law, which restricts residency-based higher education benefits for people not lawfully present unless U.S. citizens can receive the same benefits regardless of residence. A second claim argues the university cannot authorize the benefits through an institutional policy because another federal provision requires an enacted state law.

Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. didn't mince words: "This Department of Justice's efforts will not cease until we have challenged every state law or university policy that gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our Nation's own citizens."

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate called it straightforward: "This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens. This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country."

The department says earlier lawsuits have produced permanent injunctions against similar policies in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois, and Kansas — including a ruling upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pending cases target California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Minnesota. Four additional cases were filed September 10 against Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah, and the District of Columbia.

The Delaware suit isn't happening in isolation. The same day, the DOJ announced findings that UCLA's law school illegally considered race in admissions — favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over white and Asian American students in its 2023, 2024, and 2025 incoming classes. The Guardian reported that Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ's civil rights division, said UCLA Law "runs a two-tiered admissions system whose academic bar for acceptance shifts up or down depending on the color of your skin." The school denied the accusation.

Both tracks — tuition subsidies for illegal aliens and race-based admissions — share a common thread: American citizens are being squeezed out of institutions their tax dollars fund, while universities profit from the arrangement.

The DOJ has already secured injunctions in six states. Whether Delaware and the remaining holdouts follow — and whether universities change course or wait for courts to force them — is the open question.