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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — November 5, 2026, 5:32 p.m. ET: The U.S. Justice Department sued Pennsylvania State University and its Board of Trustees on Thursday, asking a federal judge to block a university policy that can make some undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition.

The 14-page complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania as United States v. Pennsylvania State University, Civil Action No. 26-cv-6000. It seeks declaratory and permanent injunctive relief; it does not allege damages or criminal conduct.

This is a government allegation, not a court ruling. Penn State told The Associated Press that it was reviewing the complaint. No answer, injunction or merits decision appeared in the public materials reviewed by DINA at publication time.

What the complaint says

DOJ relies principally on 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a), a 1996 provision stating that a person who is not lawfully present may not receive a postsecondary education benefit based on state residence unless U.S. citizens are eligible for the same benefit without regard to residence.

The complaint alleges Penn State violates that rule because an undocumented Pennsylvania resident may qualify for resident tuition while a U.S. citizen living outside Pennsylvania generally pays the university's nonresident rate. It also invokes 8 U.S.C. § 1621(d), arguing that a public benefit for a person who is not lawfully present must be authorized through an enacted state law—not solely through a university policy.

DOJ asks the court to declare the policy preempted under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, permanently prohibit Penn State from enforcing it or adopting a similar policy, and award the federal government its litigation costs and fees.

The filing is part of a broader administration campaign. DOJ said this is its 27th lawsuit challenging in-state tuition eligibility for immigrants who lack lawful status. That count is the department's characterization of its enforcement activity, not a judicial finding about the validity of Penn State's policy.

What Penn State's published policy actually provides

Penn State's public admissions page states that undocumented students, with or without Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, may be eligible for in-state tuition if they meet the university's residency requirements. The page identifies attendance at an accredited Pennsylvania high school for at least four years and graduation from such a school—or receipt of a Pennsylvania GED—as required criteria.

The university's broader residency policy says Pennsylvania domicile must be the student's fixed and principal residence and that presence in the state cannot be primarily for education. It presumes most students who move to Pennsylvania for college remain nonresidents. It also contains individualized rules for students younger than 24, veterans, military families and other applicants.

For students who are not U.S. citizens, the policy distinguishes F- and J-visa holders from people with other visas or no visa. The latter group may qualify only if they meet the high-school criteria and the policy's additional domicile requirements. The text therefore does not automatically give every undocumented applicant the resident rate.

Penn State's undocumented-student resource page also says undocumented and DACA students cannot receive federal student aid. It says Pennsylvania does not currently provide them state financial aid and that Penn State has no university financial-aid policy specifically for undocumented students.

Those limitations matter because the lawsuit concerns tuition classification, not a general award of federal grants or state scholarships. Whether the classification is nevertheless barred by the federal statutes is the legal question the court must decide.

The legal dispute

DOJ's theory depends on characterizing eligibility as a benefit granted on the basis of Pennsylvania residence. The complaint cites decisions from other jurisdictions that invalidated or enjoined tuition programs under Section 1623, including cases involving Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Penn State has not yet stated its legal defense. Supporters of tuition-equity policies have argued in other cases that eligibility rules tied to high-school attendance and graduation are not benefits based solely on residence, and that states retain authority over public higher education. DINA is not attributing those arguments to Penn State unless the university adopts them in a filing or official statement.

Any court ruling will depend on the policy's precise wording, the statutes, controlling Third Circuit precedent and the factual record. Decisions or consent judgments involving other states may be persuasive, but they do not automatically decide the Pennsylvania case.

Why it matters

The suit puts the cost of attendance and continued enrollment at issue for students who completed much of their schooling in Pennsylvania but lack permanent immigration status. Penn State's published annual tuition and cost estimates vary substantially by campus and residency classification; the complaint cites differences of tens of thousands of dollars between some resident and nonresident totals.

The case also tests how aggressively the federal executive branch may use preemption litigation to reshape state-affiliated university policy. A permanent injunction could force Penn State to charge affected students nonresident rates unless the policy is replaced by a legally sufficient alternative. The complaint itself does not change anyone's tuition classification.

DINA analysis: The strongest civil-rights question is not answered by slogans about either “preference” or “access.” It is whether Penn State's actual eligibility criteria fall within Congress's statutory ban and what happens to students who relied on the university's published rules. Transparent adjudication requires the university's legal rationale, the policy's adoption record and privacy-protected data showing how many students—and how much tuition revenue—are implicated.

DOJ's press release repeatedly uses the term “illegal aliens.” DINA uses “undocumented students” when describing people and reserves the government's terminology for quotations, statutory language and attribution. Immigration status can involve DACA, temporary protections, pending applications and other legally distinct circumstances; the court record must establish which categories are actually covered.

Strongest accountability angle

Penn State's trustees and administrators should disclose when the policy was adopted, what legal analysis supported it, how many students have received resident classification under its undocumented-student provision, the aggregate tuition difference, and whether the university has an interim plan that protects currently enrolled students while litigation proceeds. DOJ should disclose the criteria it used to select Penn State and maintain consistent legal positions across its 27 announced cases.

Urgent follow-up records

  • Obtain the case assignment, summonses, Penn State's answer, motions and any request for a temporary or preliminary injunction.
  • Request Board of Trustees minutes, policy-adoption records and nonprivileged legal or fiscal analyses concerning residency classification for undocumented and DACA students.
  • Seek aggregate, privacy-protected counts of affected applicants and enrolled students by academic year, campus and tuition classification; do not request or publish personally identifiable student records.
  • Calculate the aggregate difference between resident and nonresident tuition assessed under the policy and identify whether state appropriations subsidize that difference.
  • Request any interim guidance to admissions, bursar and financial-aid staff and any assurance provided to currently enrolled students.
  • Ask DOJ for its case-selection criteria, settlement demands and the current status of all 27 tuition-policy lawsuits it cites.

Primary and supporting sources

Verification cutoff: November 5, 2026, 5:32 p.m. Eastern. DINA will update this report when Penn State files its response or a court rules on interim relief.