The federal government is suing the New Mexico Higher Education Department over a 2-decade-old program that provides in-state tuition, scholarships and grants to immigrants who had attended other schools in the state, regardless of their citizenship status.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, U.S. attorneys wrote that federal law prohibits those here illegally from receiving postsecondary education benefits “if such benefits are denied to U.S. citizens residing in other states.”
“There are no exceptions,” the lawsuit adds. “Yet, New Mexico has ignored this Congressional prohibition for over two decades.”
