Illinois just learned what happens when you dare a federal court to enforce a 30-year-old law.
Three more states made the same dare Monday – and Trump's DOJ showed up with the paperwork.
New York, Connecticut, and Vermont are defendants now, and they are walking into a courtroom where five states before them have already lost.
The Moment Democrats Went Quiet
Governor JB Pritzker spent years calling himself the country's top defender of immigrant communities.
He clashed with federal agents.
He signed executive orders.
He gave speeches.
Then a federal judge declared his signature tuition policy "unconstitutional and invalid" on July 24.
Pritzker's office didn't say a word.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul – another loud voice for sanctuary policies – didn't file an appeal.
Illinois State University announced it would not contest the ruling.
https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/2086846488810770899?s=20
When the fight moved from a press conference to a courtroom, the defiant Democrats disappeared.
That silence is the most important fact in this story – because Connecticut's attorney general just made the same bet Pritzker lost.
Connecticut's AG Just Wrote a Press Release He May Regret
William Tong issued a statement the moment the Department of Justice lawsuit landed Monday.
"Note to Trump – stay out of Connecticut," Tong said. "How we run our schools and teach our kids is none of your business."
He called the lawsuit a "cruel attack" and said Trump has no authority to force Connecticut to change how it runs its colleges.
Here is what Tong left out of that statement.
Federal law has prohibited states from giving college benefits to illegal immigrants – benefits denied to American citizens from other states – for thirty years.
Not three years. Thirty.
Congress passed 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a) in 1996.
https://twitter.com/AAGShumate/status/2086862708134076921?s=20
Tong voted for the Connecticut tuition policy in 2011 as a state legislator.
He has known about that federal law the entire time he has been collecting credit for defying it.
Five States Already Ran This Play and Lost
The DOJ didn't walk into Connecticut, New York, and Vermont on a theory.
They walked in with a 5-0 record.
Texas fell. Kentucky fell. Oklahoma fell. Nebraska fell.
Then Illinois fell hardest – and loudest – of all.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas ruling, cementing the appellate track before Monday's filings even landed.
Every argument Tong made in his statement – states' rights, immigrant families, cruel attacks – was already made by five other Democratic attorneys general.
None of them won.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward made the DOJ's posture clear after Monday's filing: "As of today, we have now sued every state in the Second Circuit that seeks to thwart Congress's clear prohibition by placing alien over citizen. And our efforts will not cease until President Trump's promise is fulfilled."
That is not the language of an administration uncertain about its legal position.
This Is Now 17 States and Counting
New York, Connecticut, and Vermont were numbers 15, 16, and 17 in a coordinated campaign that has been running since 2025.
The complete target list also includes California, Minnesota, Virginia, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Colorado.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate put the core argument plainly: "This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country."
That framing wins in court – because it is exactly what these laws do.
A student from Florida pays out-of-state tuition at UConn.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2087158355060015396?s=20
An illegal immigrant pays in-state tuition at UConn.
Five courts have already looked at that arrangement and called it what it is.
What Comes Next
Every one of these states passed tuition laws as a political gesture – a way to signal to progressive voters that they were fighting Trump and protecting immigrant families.
The politics were easy.
The legal exposure was enormous.
Tong voted for the Connecticut policy anyway, told his voters he was protecting immigrant children, and collected the credit.
Now he is telling Trump to "stay out of Connecticut" while five Democrat attorneys general have already packed up their arguments and gone home.
The DOJ is undefeated on this issue, the Fifth Circuit has backed them up, and the Illinois ruling took effect August 7 without a single appeal filed.
Watch to see if Tong's bravado lasts longer than theirs did – or whether Connecticut ends up as just another line on Trump's winning scorecard.
Sources:
- Lindsay Kornick, "Trump's Justice Department Sues New York, Other Blue States Over Tuition for Illegal Immigrants," Fox News, August 11, 2026.
- "Department of Justice Files Complaints Against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont Challenging State Laws That Provide In-State Tuition to Illegal Aliens," U.S. Department of Justice, August 10, 2026.
- "Department of Justice Sues Colorado for Providing In-State Tuition to Illegal Aliens," U.S. Department of Justice, July 2026.
- "Federal Judge Guts Illinois DREAM Act and In-State Tuition for Immigrants," Fox News, July 2026.
- "3 States Sued for Giving In-State Tuition to Illegal Aliens," The Daily Signal, August 10, 2026.
