Illegal immigrants in Kentucky will no longer qualify for in-state tuition rates following a legal settlement that ended the practice, state Attorney General Russell Coleman confirmed Thursday.
Coleman told Fox News Digital that the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (KCPE) agreed to revise its tuition policy two months after the Justice Department brought a lawsuit claiming the arrangement violated federal law.
“Under current federal law, any illegal immigrant is barred from eligibility for postsecondary education benefits, like in-state tuition, unless the same benefits are offered to every U.S. citizen,” Coleman explained.
When the lawsuit was first filed in June, former Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi said, “No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens.”
The federal government’s case relied in part on a previous successful challenge to a similar tuition policy in Texas, according to the Department of Justice. Coleman argued that Kentucky’s original policy created an incentive for noncitizens to study in the commonwealth over states without such tuition discounts.
