(East St. Louis, IL) — 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 they apply to illegal immigrants.
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.
U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft celebrated the ruling.
“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,” Weinhoeft said in a statement. “This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the State from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.”
The decision is the latest victory for the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle state laws extending higher education benefits to illegal immigrants and comes one day after the Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit against Colorado.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Illinois and a handful of colleges in September 2025, arguing Illinois violated federal law by offering in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal immigrants without making those same benefits available to all U.S. citizens regardless of where they live.
McGlynn granted the federal government’s motion for summary judgment and denied Illinois’ motion to dismiss.
The ruling invalidates Illinois’ in-state tuition rules, the RISE Act, which provides access to state financial aid for certain students ineligible for federal aid, and the Illinois DREAM Act, which established scholarship opportunities for eligible students.
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