A federal judge has struck down Illinois laws that provided in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarships to undocumented immigrants, ruling that the state's policies are unconstitutional. The decision by U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee, sides with the Justice Department and permanently halts enforcement of the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act as they apply to individuals without legal status.
The ruling, issued Friday, stems from a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in September 2025. The federal government argued that Illinois violated federal law by offering these educational benefits to undocumented immigrants without making them available to all U.S. citizens regardless of their state of residence. McGlynn granted the federal government's motion for summary judgment, denying Illinois' motion to dismiss the case.
"Illinois sought to incentivize illegal immigration on the taxpayer’s dime by treating illegal aliens better than US citizens living in other states, in clear violation of federal law," stated U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft. "This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the State from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens."
The court has delayed the order's effective date by 14 days, allowing the state time to seek intervention from an appeals court. This decision represents another victory for the Trump administration's efforts to challenge state laws that extend higher education benefits to undocumented immigrants. The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit against Colorado just one day prior to this ruling.
In its legal challenge against Colorado, the Justice Department asserted that the state's ASSET Act and related policies unlawfully provide lower tuition rates and state financial aid to undocumented immigrants while withholding these benefits from out-of-state U.S. citizens. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward commented, "For three decades, Congress has made clear that Colorado cannot give education benefits to illegal aliens that it does not give to all American citizens."
The Justice Department has previously secured favorable rulings or settlements in similar cases involving Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. The federal government is continuing litigation against several other states, including Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Colorado.