DOJ Sues New Jersey for In-State Tuition to Undocumented Students

The Trump administration is putting federal muscle behind its mass deportation promises, shifting thousands of FBI personnel to immigration duties while simultaneously suing states that openly reward illegal immigrants at the expense of American citizens. In the first nine months of President Trump's second term, the bureau increased its immigration-related staffing by a factor of 23, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. What began with 279 FBI employees assigned to such matters before the inauguration swelled to more than 6,500 by September, with a total of 9,161 personnel involved through early last fall out of the bureau's 38,000 employees.

This redirection comes under FBI Director Kash Patel, who has made clear his commitment to executing the president's directives without hesitation. The numbers reflect the scale of the crisis at the southern border and inside American communities after years of lax enforcement under the previous administration. Illegal immigration has strained housing, schools, hospitals, and public safety resources in cities across the country. By dedicating significant manpower to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the administration is treating the issue with the urgency it deserves rather than as a distant policy afterthought.

Critics from groups that have long advocated more lenient policies quickly condemned the shift. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council called the numbers "shocking," while David Bier of the Cato Institute warned that the move diverts agents from other criminal investigations. Yet these objections ignore the reality that illegal immigration is itself a criminal enterprise in many cases, often intertwined with drug trafficking, human smuggling, and violent crime. FBI resources deployed to support deportations directly aid public safety by removing individuals who should not be here in the first place. The previous administration's open-border approach flooded the country with millions of unvetted migrants, many of whom ended up on local crime blotters. Focusing federal law enforcement on this problem is not a distraction but a correction.

At the same time, the Department of Justice is holding states accountable for policies that prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens. On Thursday, the DOJ filed a complaint against New Jersey and several of its higher education bodies for laws that grant illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates and state-funded financial aid. The 2013 law and a 2018 expansion allow noncitizens who have lived in the state and attended high school there to pay the same reduced rates as legal residents while accessing scholarships and subsidies unavailable to U.S. citizens from other states.

"This is a simple matter of federal law: in New Jersey and nationwide, colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," said Brett A. Shumate, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Division. The lawsuit argues these Dream Act-style policies unconstitutionally discriminate against American students, create magnets for further illegal immigration, and directly violate federal statutes that prohibit states from offering postsecondary benefits based on residency to those present unlawfully unless citizens receive the same treatment.

The action against New Jersey is one of nine similar lawsuits the Trump DOJ has brought against states with comparable laws. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's department is making clear that federal immigration authority cannot be undermined by blue states seeking to turn themselves into sanctuaries that lure more illegal crossings. New Jersey's policies effectively force taxpayers, including working families struggling with rising costs, to subsidize the education of people who broke the law to enter or remain in the country. American students from Pennsylvania or New York, for instance, are charged higher out-of-state rates while illegal immigrants get the discount.

This dual approach, surging law enforcement resources toward deportations while challenging sanctuary-style benefits, signals a serious break from the last four years. The Biden era saw record illegal crossings, overwhelmed border agents, and cities like New York and Chicago groaning under the weight of migrant arrivals. Hotels, schools, and emergency rooms were commandeered for newcomers while veterans slept on streets and American children fell behind in underfunded classrooms. The current administration's moves suggest those days of putting foreigners first are over.

Supporters of stricter enforcement point out that every dollar spent on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is a dollar not available for citizen students. Every FBI agent assigned to immigration support is one more tool in removing criminal aliens who prey on American communities. The scale of the FBI's involvement, while drawing predictable complaints from open-borders advocates, demonstrates the depth of the problem left behind by previous leadership.

Whether these efforts will withstand legal challenges from activist groups remains to be seen. New Jersey officials have not yet issued detailed responses, but similar states have defended their policies as humanitarian measures. The Trump administration, however, is framing the issue in straightforward terms of fairness and rule of law. Citizens should not be forced to compete with illegal immigrants for limited college aid or watch federal agents ignore border chaos in favor of other priorities. The redirection of personnel and the lawsuits represent concrete steps toward restoring order at the border and inside the country. For millions of Americans who voted for exactly this kind of accountability, the early results of the second Trump term show a government finally choosing its own people first.