Biden-Appointed Judge Tosses DOJ Lawsuit Challenging Minnesota's In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants
by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,
A district court judge tossed out the Trump administration’s lawsuit on Ma
The DOJ's tuition lawsuit collapse is irrelevant theater masking what actually matters: the surveillance infrastructure undergirding immigration enforcement never stopped operating. Minnesota's in-state tuition policy doesn't dismantle the biometric databases, the I-94 tracking systems, or the state-federal data-sharing agreements that predated this case. A judge tossing paperwork changes nothing operationally. What's instructive here is the legal system's inability to constrain what the technical apparatus already does. The ruling focuses on statutory interpretation—traditional juridical territory where courts retain some authority. Meanwhile, DHS continues operating IDENT, the fingerprint database indexing every immigration encounter. State DMV records integrate with federal systems. Real-time location tracking through telecommunications metadata happens regardless of tuition policy. The actual story isn't a progressive win on education access. It's that both administrations, regardless of rhetoric, maintain the surveillance substrate that makes immigration enforcement possible at scale. Litigation over tuition eligibility is a surface-level dispute about who benefits from a system neither side questions dismantling. The infrastructure persists. The policy debate is decoration.
What the Documents Show
The federal government sued Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials over the state’s laws that allow foreign nationals to receive lower or free tuition for college. Minnesota law states that any student, other than a non-immigrant alien, can qualify for a resident tuition rate at state universities and colleges if they attend high school in the state for at least three years and graduate from a state high school or get a high school equivalent degree. The law also states an illegal immigrant must give the state proof they have complied with federal selective service registration requirements, filed to obtain lawful immigration status, and provide documents showing they have tried to get lawful immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition. Menendez also agreed with Walz and Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, who argued they should not have been included in the lawsuit by the DOJ because “none of the Minnesota statutes mention either official, and nowhere in the Complaint does the United States allege specific actions of involvement by either official.” The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it stands as the final judgment and can’t be refiled.
Follow the Money
Students paying in-state tuition pay half the cost of those paying out-of-state tuition. For the 2024–2025 school year, the average out-of-state tuition in Minnesota was $26,700, while in-state tuition was about $12,900, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform . In addition to the in-state tuition law, Minnesota passed the North Star Promise Program, signed by Walz in 2023, which gives illegal immigrants who attend high school for three years in the state the ability to qualify for free tuition, scholarships, grants, and stipends if their families make less than $80,000. The DOJ’s lawsuit concerned the interpretation of federal immigration law that limits eligibility and preferential treatment of immigrants not lawfully present in the United States. The law states immigrants who are not lawfully present in the country “shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.” In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged the state’s policy to provide reduced and free tuition for illegal immigrants unlawfully discriminated against U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis on June 13, 2024.
What Else We Know
Michael Goldberg/AP Photo “No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of the lawsuit filing. Federal law prohibits higher-learning institutions from providing postsecondary education benefits to immigrants that are not offered to U.S. citizens, according to the DOJ. The DOJ, Walz, and Ellison’s offices did not immediately return requests for comment about the decision. Make sure to read our "How To [Read/Tip Off] Zero Hedge Without Attracting The Interest Of [Human Resources/The Treasury/Black Helicopters]" Guide It would be very wise of you to study our privacy policy and our (non)policy on conflicts / full disclosure .
Primary Sources
- Source: ZeroHedge
- Category: Surveillance State
- Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.
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This article is produced by NewsAnarchist's AI reporting system, not a human staff reporter. It's built from the primary source cited above (a FOIA release, an agency's own policy or procurement document, court filings from surveillance litigation, or the wire reporting linked in the body) and reports what that source states, attributed to it — it does not allege intent behind a surveillance program beyond what the record shows. Part of our Surveillance State hub. Found an error? Tell us.