ACLU Files Motion to Intervene in Trump Lawsuit Challenging In-State Tuition for Immigrant Students
The initial lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on December 29.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The ACLU of Virginia and the Legal Aid Justice Center are challenging a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration on December 29 that seeks to prohibit Virginia from enforcing its in-state tuition law for immigrant students.
The organizations entered a motion to intervene and asking for an extension on December 31, two days after the lawsuit was initially filed in U.S. District Court and one day after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed a joint motion for a consent judgment, indicating that the Commonwealth does not dispute the action being requested by the Trump justice department.
The law being challenged, which was passed in 2021 and is known as the Virginia Dream Act, states that any student who attended high school in the Commonwealth for at least two years and whose parents or guardians filed state income tax for at least two years is eligible for in-state tuition “regardless of citizenship or immigration status.”
“These are Virginia students who grew up in the Commonwealth, graduated from our high schools, contribute to our communities, and made life-altering decisions for their futures relying on a state law that has existed for years,” said Rohmah Javed, director of the Immigrant Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, in a press release issued December 31. “They are Virginians in every way that matters, and they deserve someone to stand up and fight for them. We want to intervene for the court to consider the real-world impact on Virginia students before making a final decision.”
According to the motion filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center and the ACLU-VA, there were about 3,000 noncitizen students enrolled in higher education in Virginia in 2018, and approximately 5,000 noncitizen students graduate each year from Virginia high schools.
“The Attorney General of Virginia has abandoned his duties to defend Virginia law and the people of the Commonwealth, so we must,” said ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg, in the press release. “Attorney General Jason Miyares has sided with the Department of Justice—intentionally working in secrecy and over a holiday weekend—to manufacture a predetermined outcome to deprive Virginian students of not only their futures but their day in court.”
In an email to the Advance on Tuesday, Gregg said that Virginia is the only state named in this specific lawsuit, but that the U.S. Department of Justice “has challenged similar in-state tuition laws in other states, including Texas’ which had been in place for decades.”
Other states facing similar legal challenges are Illinois, Minnesota, Kentucky, Texas, and Oklahoma, Gregg said.
She said the manner in which the Department of Justice filed the lawsuit and entered into an agreement the next day with the Virginia Attorney General was “surprising.”
“Their actions demonstrate that this lawsuit was a coordinated effort from inception to manipulate the legal system to circumvent Virginia’s legislative process,” she said. “While both parties undoubtedly hoped to strip in-state tuition for Virginia students without opposition, we were ready to ensure that didn’t happen.”
According to a report given to the General Assembly by the State Council of Higher Education in August of 2025, the average full-time in-state tuition at Virginia’s public four-year universities for the 2025-26 academic year is $29,538, including room and board. That’s a 3.1% increase over the 2024-25 average total tuition, room and board.
The average full-time out-of-state tuition at public four-year institutions this year, including room and board, is $49,754.
At the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, 2025-26 full-time in-state tuition is $9,406, plus $5,958 in mandatory fees. Room and board is $13,036.
Full-time out-of-state tuition at UMW is $22,912.
Gregg said Tuesday that there have been no updates since ACLU-VA and Legal Aid Justice Center filed their motions to intervene.
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