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Illegal immigrants in Nebraska will no longer be able to get an in-state education after the state agreed to end a 12-year-old law that the Trump administration called unconstitutional.
Under a proposed consent decree filed Tuesday and pending court approval, Nebraska agreed not to enforce laws that allow for reduced tuition and certain financial aid benefits for people in the state illegally. The deal came hours after the Justice Department sued the state.
In its federal lawsuits, the Justice Department argued that Nebraska’s laws violate federal law by illegally allowing some students in the state to qualify for reduced tuition and state financial aid, while US citizens from other states may not be eligible for the same benefits.
The appeal asked a federal judge to strike down those provisions and bar Nebraska from enforcing them. Later that same day, the United States and Nebraska jointly filed a proposed consent decree, asking the court to permanently rule out the challenged laws.
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Protesters march in support of illegal immigrants. (Allen Schaben/Getty Images)
“For two decades, the Nebraska legislature has given illegal immigrants preferential treatment over American citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement Tuesday. “We encourage all states to follow Attorney General Hilgers’ commonsense amendment, and end any policy that rewards illegal entry into our nation with educational opportunities not available to US citizens.”
The DOJ said that since 2006, Nebraska had ignored a federal law barring illegal immigrants from receiving tuition benefits denied to US citizens outside the state.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the unconstitutional laws “should never have been passed in the first place.”
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(Brian A. Jackson/iStock)
“Nebraska’s unconstitutional and unconstitutional laws should never have been passed in the first place and are prohibited by federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Public Affairs Division. “The Justice Department has won this case in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, and we will take this fight to any states that fail to put American citizens first.”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen also celebrated the legal agreement.
“Nebraskas expect that illegal aliens will not receive tuition and financial aid benefits, and federal law prohibits that,” Pillen said. “Nebraska’s outdated laws to the contrary are deeply flawed and unconstitutional, and I am grateful for the combined efforts of President Trump’s Department of Justice and Attorney General Hilgers to bring this long overdue fix.”
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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen responded to the consent decree in a statement Tuesday calling the laws outdated and unconstitutional. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Department of Justice said this is the eighth case in a series of actions it has filed against the country’s laws that it says favors immigrants living in the country illegally over American citizens. The department said it has won similar cases in Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, and cases are pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia and California.
