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 first nine months of Donald Trump’s second term, reassigning thousands of personnel to support mass deportation efforts in a shift that experts warn has pulled agents away from investigating serious crimes. Records obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the number of FBI employees working on “immigration-related matters” surged from 279 before Trump took office in January 2025 to more than 6,500 by September. In total, 9,161 distinct FBI personnel were involved in such work between inauguration and early September, out of the bureau’s roughly 38,000 employees.

The redirection occurred under FBI Director Kash Patel, who has aligned closely with Trump’s priorities. Immigration advocates and policy analysts described the scale as unprecedented for a law enforcement agency traditionally focused on counterterrorism, organized crime, and public corruption. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council who has testified before Congress on the costs of mass deportations, called the numbers “a huge, huge number of people” and expressed shock at the extent of the reallocation.

David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, went further, arguing that the move has tangible consequences for public safety. “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 comes as the Trump administration pursues an expansive deportation agenda that has strained multiple federal agencies. Civil immigration violations are not crimes, yet the FBI’s involvement appears to treat them with the urgency once reserved for national security threats. Critics say the shift reflects a political choice to prioritize targeting immigrant communities over addressing violent crime, white-collar fraud, or domestic extremism. With thousands of agents reassigned, ongoing criminal probes may have been delayed or deprioritized, though the FBI has not released data on the specific impact to its traditional caseload.

Simultaneously, the Department of Justice escalated its legal offensive against states offering educational opportunities to immigrants. On the same day the FBI figures became public, the DOJ filed a complaint against New Jersey, challenging state laws that allow certain long-term noncitizen residents to pay in-state tuition rates and access financial aid. The lawsuit, brought by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s department, targets a 2013 law granting in-state tuition to students who attended high school in New Jersey for at least three years and a 2018 measure expanding eligibility for state scholarships and aid programs.

Federal prosecutors argue these policies “blatantly discriminate in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states” and violate a federal statute that prohibits states from offering postsecondary benefits to people unlawfully present unless U.S. citizens receive the same advantages. The complaint names the state, the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and several officials including Acting Secretary of Higher Education Margo Chaly. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the action was straightforward. “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.”

This marks the ninth such lawsuit the Trump DOJ has brought against states with similar Dream Act-style protections. The administration claims these policies incentivize illegal immigration and disadvantage American students from out of state who must pay higher rates. New Jersey officials have not yet publicly responded in detail, but supporters of the laws point out that the students in question are often brought to the United States as young children, graduate from local high schools, and have few connections to any other country.

Immigrant rights advocates see both the FBI redirection and the New Jersey lawsuit as interconnected elements of a punitive strategy that extends far beyond border security. By involving the premier federal investigative agency in civil deportation work, the administration is reshaping law enforcement priorities at a systemic level. At the same time, blocking states from providing education to young people who grew up in their communities reinforces a message that even long-term residents integrated into American society remain targets.

The scale of the FBI’s involvement, nearly a quarter of its workforce touched by immigration matters in under a year, underscores the extraordinary resources being dedicated to this effort. Whether this massive redeployment has left gaps in countering drug trafficking, cybercrime, or civil rights violations remains an open and pressing question. As legal battles over state tuition laws play out in court, the broader transformation of federal agencies into instruments of immigration enforcement continues to unfold, with effects likely to be felt in both public safety and opportunity for generations of immigrant families.