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

The Federal Bureau of Investigation dramatically expanded its role in immigration enforcement during the opening months of Donald Trump’s second term, reassigning thousands of employees to support the president’s mass deportation agenda. Bureau records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the number of FBI personnel working on “immigration-related matters” surged from 279 before Trump took office in January 2025 to more than 6,500 by September, a 23-fold increase. In total, 9,161 FBI employees participated in immigration work during that period, out of the bureau’s roughly 38,000 total workforce.

The redirection coincided with the early tenure of FBI Director Kash Patel, who has aligned closely with Trump’s priorities. Immigration advocates and policy researchers described the shift as unprecedented in scale. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the numbers “a huge, huge number of people” and said the reallocation underscored the extraordinary resources being poured into deportation efforts. David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, warned that the move pulled agents away from core law enforcement duties. “We’re talking about the FBI diverting people away from criminal investigations and ongoing criminal activity and into civil immigration enforcement,” Bier said. “This is showing the extent to which the resources of the FBI were put at the disposal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

The revelation arrives alongside a parallel legal offensive by the Department of Justice. On the same day the FBI figures became public, the department filed suit against New Jersey, challenging state laws that allow certain noncitizen residents to pay in-state tuition rates and access state financial aid. The complaint targets a 2013 law granting in-state tuition to undocumented students who attended high school in the state and a 2018 measure extending eligibility for scholarships and subsidies. It names not only the state but also education officials and agencies including the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.

Justice Department officials framed the case as a defense of American citizens and federal law. “These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates, scholarships, or subsidies, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal immigrants with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for,” the department said in a statement. Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate added that colleges “cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens.” The lawsuit is one of nine the Trump administration has brought against similar state measures, often called Dream Acts, which typically require years of residency and high-school attendance within the state.

The twin developments illustrate the breadth of the administration’s immigration strategy. Beyond high-profile raids and expanded detention, it has enlisted the FBI, traditionally focused on counterterrorism, public corruption, and violent crime, to support civil enforcement operations that do not require the same evidentiary standards as criminal cases. That reallocation raises questions about opportunity costs. With limited investigative capacity, every agent reassigned to immigration paperwork or joint task forces with ICE is one fewer available for fraud, cybercrime, or domestic terrorism cases. Early data from the administration’s first year suggest deportation numbers have risen sharply, but at a steep bureaucratic price.

New Jersey’s policies, like those in about 20 other states, were designed to integrate young people brought to the United States as children or who have spent most of their lives here. Supporters argue these students contribute economically and that denying them affordable education simply saddles communities with undereducated workers. Federal law prohibits states from offering residency-based postsecondary benefits exclusively to undocumented immigrants unless citizens from other states receive the same treatment. The Justice Department contends New Jersey’s approach violates that provision by effectively discriminating against out-of-state Americans.

Critics of the administration’s approach see a pattern of using federal power to punish states attempting more pragmatic integration policies. The FBI’s expanded immigration portfolio, they argue, reflects a choice to treat civil immigration violations as a higher priority than many criminal matters. That emphasis could have lasting consequences for the bureau’s institutional focus and for public safety in areas unrelated to the border.

The New Jersey case will likely take months to wind through federal court. Similar lawsuits have produced mixed results in the past, with some states successfully defending their programs by adjusting eligibility rules. Yet the volume of litigation signals the administration’s determination to eliminate what it views as magnets for unauthorized migration. In the meantime, the human stakes remain high: thousands of students already enrolled under these programs now face uncertainty about next year’s tuition bills, while FBI field offices have quietly reorganized their workloads around a mission many agents did not train for.

The scale of the FBI’s redeployment, documented in internal records, offers the clearest picture yet of how thoroughly the Trump administration has reordered federal law enforcement priorities. Whether that reordering ultimately makes the country safer or simply shifts limited government resources from one set of problems to another will be judged by results still unfolding. For now, the numbers reveal a government bending significant institutional muscle toward a single policy goal.