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The virtual press briefing featured leaders from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), TheDream.US, the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and Trinity Washington University, as well as a Florida computer science student directly affected by the erosion of such policies.
At the center of the event was the release of the Protecting Tuition Equity Playbook, a new national resource from the Higher Education Coordinating Group convened by the Presidents' Alliance and FWD.us. The guide offers legal analysis affirming the validity of tuition equity policies and outlines concrete steps states, coalitions, and institutions can take to defend them.
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, characterized the Trump administration's legal campaign as a deliberate effort to undermine longstanding state law.
"Even more disturbing, the federal government is attempting to game the court system to achieve that goal by challenging these duly enacted, longstanding laws," he said.
Tuition equity laws, which exist in more than two dozen states, allow undocumented students who attended high school and meet other requirements to pay in-state rather than out-of-state tuition at public colleges. The DOJ has challenged policies in seven states, though advocates did not specify which states were targeted.
Monica Andrade, director of state policy and legal strategy at the Presidents' Alliance, said such policies reflect decades of bipartisan consensus.
"Over the past two decades, states across the country have adopted tuition equity laws, reflecting long-standing and bipartisan recognition of their social and economic benefits," she said.
Dr. Hyein Lee, chief operating officer of TheDream.US — the nation's largest college access and success program for undocumented students — pointed to graduation data as evidence of the policies' effectiveness. Roughly 80 percent of the organization's scholars attend public colleges and universities where they qualify for in-state tuition. Among those scholars, 76 percent graduate within six years, a rate that surpasses the national average.
Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, argued that while private institutions provide significant financial support to undocumented students, they cannot absorb the demand that public colleges currently meet. Trinity is a Predominantly Black Institution and a Hispanic Serving Institution.
"Private higher education cannot possibly meet the demand to provide hundreds of thousands of seats for immigrant students seeking to improve their lives and contribute to their communities," McGuire said. "Tuition equity is the fairest and most effective way to ensure the maximum impact of higher education for all students."
The human cost of eroding tuition equity was illustrated by Alex, a University of Central Florida computer science student who has lived in Florida since the age of one. In the spring of 2025, with one semester remaining before graduation, Florida revoked in-state tuition for Dreamers, dramatically increasing his costs.
"I had to spread out my classes, delay my graduation a whole year, and work 50-plus hour weeks to pay for one class on top of living expenses," Alex said. "Access to education should be based on talent and effort, not on circumstances beyond a student's control."
