The U.S. Department of Justice and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education have reached a tentative settlement over the state’s tuition policy on undocumented immigrants.
The DOJ filed a lawsuit in June, arguing the CPE regulation that provides reduced in-state tuition to students without permanent legal status discriminates against U.S. citizens.
The CPE policy counts anybody who graduates from a Kentucky high school as an
in-state resident, including undocumented immigrants.
The DOJ lawsuit says it’s unequal treatment of Americans and violates federal law because
those who live out of state don’t get the same tuition relief.
“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a news release announcing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit follows two executive orders signed by President Trump that he said seek to ensure undocumented immigrants aren't obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.
Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General, Russell Coleman, also maintains the policy is pre-empted by federal law that bars undocumented immigrants from college benefits unless the same benefits are offered to every U.S. citizen.
“The federal government has set its immigration policy, and the Council must regulate in accordance with it," Coleman wrote in a letter to the CPE in July. "To that end, I urge the Council to withdraw its regulation rather than litigate what I believe will be, and should be, a losing fight."
While a settlement between the DOJ and CPE has been reached, it hasn’t been signed yet by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove in the Eastern District of Kentucky, who is assigned to the case.
Under the settlement, the CPE acknowledged its tuition policy is unlawful and agreed to terminate it immediately. The DOJ settled a similar lawsuit with Texas in June.
MALDEF, a Latino civil rights group, fileda motion to intervene in the Kentucky lawsuit on behalf of students, but there’s been no ruling yet on that request. The same group was denied the right to intervene in the Texas case.
Both Attorney General Coleman and CPE President Aaron Thompson declined to comment until the settlement is signed by Judge Tatenhove.
Earlier this year, Republican state Rep. T.J. Roberts of Burlington filed a bill to eliminate the Kentucky policy, but it didn't receive a committee hearing.
