for Illegal Immigrants ‘Unconstitutional and Invalid’
The ruling stops Illinois from ‘putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens,’ U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said.
A federal court ruled in favor of the Trump administration in a lawsuit challenging Illinois’ laws that offered education benefits to illegal immigrants while denying the same for out-of-state Americans.
In a July 24 order, the District Court for the Southern District of Illinois declared that in-state tuition provisions under the state’s Acevedo Bill (which became law in May 2023), its 2024 amendment, the DREAM Act, and the Retention of Illinois Students and Equity (RISE) Act, as applied to illegal immigrants, violated the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and are “unconstitutional and invalid.”
The Trump administration argued that these three laws, which provide postsecondary education benefits to illegal immigrants, were in violation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code Section 1623.
Section 1623 bans illegal immigrants from being eligible for post-secondary education benefits in a state unless the same benefits are provided to all U.S. citizens, regardless of their state of residence.
In its complaint filed in September 2025, the Trump administration highlighted that the Acevedo Bill allows illegal immigrants to pay a lower tuition rate in the state’s public colleges and universities than a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident from other states.
The Illinois DREAM Act, signed into law in 2011, created a scholarship program funded by private donations. This benefit was later limited to illegal immigrants students in the state.