With all the hustle and bustle leading up to Friday evening's White House Correspondents' Dinner, a major court ruling on illegal immigrants and education appears to have mostly flown under the radar - and it's a big win for all Americans.
🚨 A federal judge has struck down Illinois laws allowing unlawfully present aliens to receive in-state college tuition, state financial aid, and DREAM Act scholarship benefits, ruling those laws are preempted by federal immigration law. pic.twitter.com/EhaaKNcDLI
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) July 25, 2026
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was dealt a major legal blow Friday after a federal judge gutted key state laws providing in-state tuition, financial aid and scholarships to illegal immigrants, marking another win for the Trump administration's nationwide immigration agenda.
U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee serving in the Southern District of Illinois, sided with the Justice Department, ruling that Illinois' in-state tuition policies, the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act are "unconstitutional and invalid" as applied to illegal immigrants.
...
McGlynn granted the federal government's motion for summary judgment and denied Illinois' motion to dismiss.
The RISE Act allows students who can't get federal help to dip into state-provided financial aid coffers, while the state's DREAM ACT makes students eligible for scholarships. The judge said those statutes, and the one for in-state tuition, could not be read the way Illinois was trying to.
The Trump administration praised the ruling:
U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft: "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. This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops…
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) July 25, 2026
U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft: "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. This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the State from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens."
And we've seen that they aren't done working to weed out noxious laws like this that have been enacted by blue state governors and legislators.
READ MORE: New DOJ Lawsuit Targets NJ Law Favoring Illegal Aliens by Offering Them In-State Tuition
Republican Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15) rightly called out the Dem governor's refusal to stand up for Americans instead of illegal aliens in his state:
🚨A federal judge just struck down multiple Illinois laws, including those signed by @GovPritzker, that give illegal aliens in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarships.
— Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) July 25, 2026
This is a win for Illinois taxpayers and American students who were shut out while Pritzker prioritized… pic.twitter.com/LBxdWTo5oV
A federal judge just struck down multiple Illinois laws, including those signed by @GovPritzker, that give illegal aliens in-state tuition, financial aid, and scholarships. This is a win for Illinois taxpayers and American students who were shut out while Pritzker prioritized foreigners in our country illegally.
Is this a done deal? As usual, the answer's yes and no.
The ruling permanently prevents Illinois from enforcing the laws, although McGlynn delayed the order from taking effect for 14 days to allow the state to ask an appeals court to intervene.
You can read the full decision here.
Editor’s Note: We voted for mass deportations, not special benefits for illegals. Help us continue to fight back against Democrats like JB Pritzker trying to go against the will of the American people.
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