MUST READ: Todd Blanche Vows Crackdown On States Rewarding Illegal…

Attorney General Todd Blanche has confirmed that Illinois is officially barred from handing out discounted in-state tuition to people who are in the country illegally, following a decisive Justice Department victory in federal court that strikes at the heart of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s sanctuary-state agenda.

Blanche did not mince words in announcing the win. He stated plainly that Illinois gave in-state tuition to illegal aliens and treated American students like second-class citizens, calling the arrangement unconstitutional. He confirmed the Department of Justice sued and won, and vowed the department would keep fighting any state that puts illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee sitting in the Southern District of Illinois, who sided fully with the Justice Department. McGlynn ruled that Illinois’ in-state tuition policies, including the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act, are unconstitutional and invalid as they apply to people unlawfully present in the country.

In a separate but related decision, U.S. District Judge David W. Dugan issued his own 27-page memorandum striking down multiple Illinois laws that granted illegal aliens preferential access to in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarship programs. Dugan denied Illinois’ motion to dismiss the case and granted the federal government’s cross-motion for summary judgment in part.

Dugan did not hold back in his written order, stating plainly that U.S. citizens or nationals must be treated no worse than illegal aliens. That basic principle, apparently, was too much for Pritzker and Illinois Democrats to accept when they built a system that rolled out the red carpet for people who broke the law to enter the country.

The legal foundation for the ruling rests on federal law, specifically 8 U.S.C. Section 1623(a), which prohibits states from granting postsecondary education benefits to illegal aliens based on state residence unless the very same benefits are made available to every American citizen nationwide, regardless of where they live. Illinois blatantly ignored that standard for years.

Under the now-struck-down system, illegal immigrants living in Illinois could access reduced tuition rates and other taxpayer-funded benefits at public universities and community colleges, while a U.S. citizen living in Indiana, Missouri, or any other state was locked out of those same discounts simply because they were not Illinois residents. Judge Dugan called that scheme exactly what it was: illegal.

U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft, who helped lead the fight, said Illinois sought to incentivize illegal immigration on the taxpayer’s dime by treating illegal aliens better than U.S. citizens living in other states, in clear violation of federal law. He said the ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the state from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.

Illinois had tried to argue its way out of the lawsuit by claiming the federal statute violated the anti-commandeering doctrine, a Tenth Amendment principle that bars Washington from dictating what state legislatures can and cannot do. Judge Dugan flatly rejected that argument, finding the federal law was a legitimate exercise of federal preemption authority rather than any kind of unconstitutional overreach.

The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department in September 2025, named Governor Pritzker, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and officials from several major state schools as defendants, including Southern Illinois University, the University of Illinois, Chicago State University, Eastern Illinois University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Rend Lake College.

The court’s injunction permanently bars Illinois, Pritzker, Raoul, state education agencies, and the named university and community college boards from ever enforcing the challenged provisions against illegal aliens again. Judge McGlynn delayed the order from taking effect for fourteen days, giving Illinois a short window to appeal to a higher court if it chooses.

Without a successful appeal, the order takes hold in August, permanently cutting off Illinois’ ability to offer in-state tuition and other financial benefits through the RISE Act or the Illinois DREAM Act. As of this reporting, state officials in Springfield have not publicly said whether they intend to challenge the ruling.

Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller of Illinois celebrated the outcome, writing that a federal judge had struck down multiple Illinois laws, including ones signed by Pritzker himself, that gave illegal aliens in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarships. She called it a win for Illinois taxpayers and for American students who were shut out while Pritzker prioritized foreigners who broke the law to be here.

The ruling marks yet another win for the Trump administration’s aggressive nationwide push against sanctuary-style policies that reward illegal immigration with taxpayer-funded perks.

The Justice Department has similar lawsuits pending against a long list of blue states, including California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

The push to end these tuition giveaways traces back to an April 2025 executive action directing federal agencies to identify and challenge state laws that extend special benefits to people in the country illegally. Illinois now becomes one of the most prominent examples of that policy bearing fruit in the courts.

For years, American families who played by the rules, paid their taxes, and sent their kids to college the honest way watched as Illinois carved out special treatment for people who crossed the border unlawfully. This ruling puts an end to that inequity, at least in Illinois, and sends a clear signal to other blue states still clinging to similar schemes.

Critics of the sanctuary-state model have long argued that policies like Illinois’ RISE Act do nothing but encourage further illegal immigration by dangling taxpayer-funded incentives in front of people who have no legal right to be in the country in the first place.

The court’s ruling validates that argument in the clearest terms possible.

Pritzker, who has built much of his political brand around defying the Trump administration on immigration, now faces a stinging legal defeat that undercuts one of his signature sanctuary-state policies. Spokespeople for both Pritzker and Raoul did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling or whether the state plans to appeal.

The Blanche-led Justice Department has made clear this is only the beginning. With similar lawsuits already underway against nine other Democrat-run states, the Illinois ruling is likely to serve as a blueprint the administration will lean on as it works to dismantle sanctuary-style tuition benefits across the country.

For now, American students and taxpayers in Illinois can claim a genuine victory.

The message from Washington could not be clearer: states that reward illegal immigration at the expense of their own citizens will find themselves back in federal court, and based on this outcome, they should not expect to win.