BOSTON — The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the 2023 Massachusetts Tuition Equity Law, which provides in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants who graduated from a Massachusetts high school. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, through her office, has said she will defend the law in court.

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, head of DOJ's Civil Division, framed the case in plain federal-supremacy terms. "This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," Shumate said in a statement announcing the filing. The DOJ's complaint argues that federal law bars states from offering tuition benefits to illegal immigrants that are not available to U.S. citizens living in other states, and, in the DOJ's framing, "there are no exceptions."

The Massachusetts Tuition Equity Law was passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 2023. It extends in-state tuition rates at the state's public colleges and universities to people who attended and graduated from a Massachusetts high school, regardless of immigration status. The Boston Globe estimates that approximately 3,000 illegal immigrants graduate from Massachusetts high schools each year and would qualify for the discounted tuition under the law.

The statute does not provide state financial aid to illegal immigrants. It applies only to the in-state versus out-of-state rate differential at public institutions.

Campbell's office, asked by the Boston Globe for comment in the days leading up to the filing, said the Attorney General "will of course defend Massachusetts law should it be challenged." As of Monday afternoon, Campbell had not issued a more specific statement about the DOJ complaint or the legal strategy her office will pursue.

The DOJ filing lands on a politically difficult day for the Attorney General. Earlier Monday, Campbell's brother, Alvin Campbell Jr., was sentenced to life in prison in Suffolk Superior Court following his June conviction on 21 counts of aggravated rape and related charges. The two stories are unrelated, but landed in the same news cycle.

The DOJ has filed 12 of these lawsuits and prevailed in the first four it litigated to judgment. The pending cases — including Massachusetts — will determine whether the Tuition Equity Law and similar statutes survive in Democratic-led states. The Trump administration has not signaled what additional actions it may pursue if it prevails.

The 2023 Massachusetts law passed the Legislature with broad Democratic support. Governor Maura Healey, who signed the bill into law in 2023, has not publicly responded to Monday's lawsuit.