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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.
