The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota and Democratic Governor Tim Walz over a program designed to offer financial aid to illegal immigrants pursuing higher education.
The DOJ had previously blocked a similar initiative in Texas by threatening legal action and has already moved forward with a related lawsuit in Kentucky, The Blaze reported on Friday.
“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement regarding the Minnesota lawsuit.
“The Department of Justice just won on this exact issue in Texas, and we look forward to taking this fight to Minnesota in order to protect the rights of American citizens first,” she added.
According to Politico, illegal immigrants in Minnesota are eligible for in-state tuition rates and state financial aid under the Minnesota Dream Act, which was enacted in 2013 under a previous Democratic governor.
The DOJ lawsuit claims that the program discriminates against U.S. citizens, the outlet noted further. “The magnitude of this discrimination against U.S. citizens is substantial,” said a statement from the DOJ. “The cost of tuition for resident students is significantly lower than for U.S. citizens that are not in-state residents.”
The lawsuit also names the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and State Attorney General Keith Ellison as defendants. It follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in April, directing federal agencies to identify and eliminate “laws, regulations, policies, and practices” that favor illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens.
Walz, who served as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the party’s unsuccessful 2024 campaign, has since stated that the country “was not ready” for the message he and his running mate were promoting, The Blaze said.
Meanwhile, Bondi celebrated a pair of historic wins at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
“Today, the Supreme Court instructed district courts to STOP the endless barrage of nationwide injunctions against President Trump. This would not have been possible without tireless work from our excellent lawyers @TheJusticeDept and our Solicitor General John Sauer. This Department of Justice will continue to zealously defend @POTUS’s policies and his authority to implement them,” Bondi wrote on X.
The high court shut down federal judges’ ability to prevent executive acts throughout the country via nationwide injunctions.
The court’s 6-3 decision, with all six GOP-appointed justices in the majority, is a significant setback for those pursuing legal challenges to Trump’s executive orders and other actions, many of which have been blocked or put on hold by lower district courts.
Nationwide injunctions prohibit the government from enforcing a law, rule, or policy across the United States, not simply against the individual parties engaged in the litigation or in the districts where they are granted.
The ban on nationwide injunctions in most cases was issued in regards to Trump’s early executive order blocking birthright citizenship. The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland explained: “The US Supreme Court allows Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect in some areas of the country for now by curtailing federal judges’ ability to block the president’s policies nationwide.”
On Friday, following the ruling, Bondi said that the Supreme Court would likely decide the birthright citizenship issue once and for all during their next session, which begins in October. The justices heard oral arguments in the case in May after three lower federal courts had issued nationwide injunctions against the order’s implementation.
In his order, Trump declared that the 14th Amendment provision granting U.S. citizenship to children born on American soil applies only to those with at least one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident.
If it were to be implemented, Trump’s policy would deny citizenship at birth to an estimated 255,000 babies born annually in the U.S. to illegal immigrants or temporary visa holders, according to the Migration Policy Institute.