Illegal immigrants should not have access to our schools and certainly not at a discounted tuition rate.
At the foundation of this country stands a simple, non-negotiable truth: American citizens come first. That is why I am proud of our federal court for once again striking down the radical Illinois Democrats’ attempt to put illegal aliens ahead of our own people by handing them in-state tuition.
In United States v. Illinois, the federal government correctly argued that Illinois law collided head-on with a clear federal statute. That statute forbids any state from offering residency-based higher education benefits to illegal aliens unless those same benefits are extended to every U.S. citizen, regardless of where they live. On July 24, U.S. District Judge David W. Dugan agreed. He ruled that the state’s in-state tuition provisions, along with key parts of the Illinois DREAM Act and the RISE Act, violate federal law when applied to people who are not lawfully present in the United States. The court permanently blocked Illinois from enforcing those provisions. It gave the state a 14-day window to seek a stay while it appeals.
This ruling is only the beginning. There should be total, bipartisan opposition to subsidizing higher education for people who broke the law to get here in the first place. These individuals should have been removed from the country long ago. Instead, Democrats decided taxpayers should foot part of the bill for their college degrees.
College is already punishingly expensive, and Illinois sits near the top of the national rankings for average in-state tuition. According to Education Data, Illinois has the third highest average in-state tuition in the nation. Our own kids and working families already pay more than students in the vast majority of other states.
Yet the Democrats wanted you to dig deeper into your pocket so an illegal alien could pay the discounted rate. That is not compassion. That is a deliberate decision to rank those who are not supposed to be here above the people who actually fund the system.
Democrats do not put families first. They will throw hardworking citizens under the bus the moment it serves their political ideology. This court victory is another clear win for the Trump administration’s national effort to restore order to immigration policy. But make no mistake: it is one hard-fought step forward against a machine that will keep inventing new ways to incentivize illegal entry and reward it with public benefits.
Illinoisans must open their eyes to the real costs of this approach. It is not abstract. It shows up as crime on our streets, as billions diverted into healthcare and social programs for people who should not be here, and as American lives lost when illegal, repeat offenders who were never supposed to remain free continue to prey on our communities. Every dollar steered toward benefits for illegal aliens is a dollar taken from the citizens who built this state and pay the taxes for it. Families are already stretched thin. They do not need Democrats adding insult to injury by treating lawbreaking as a path to special privileges.
I thank Judge David W. Dugan for a clear-eyed decision that upholds the law and protects Illinois taxpayers. Governor JB Pritzker and his allies spent years trying to siphon your hard-earned money into this scheme. If his administration moves to challenge or delay this ruling, raise your voice. Tell them plainly: we are done subsidizing illegal immigration. American citizens come first. No exceptions. No more handouts.
