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The Department of Justice this week filed a lawsuit against Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah and the District of Columbia challenging state laws it claims provides in-state tuition and financial assistance to immigrants.

The federal government alleges discrimination against citizens who it says, “are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal aliens with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for,
all in direct conflict with federal law.”

The DOJ said in a press release that the latest lawsuits bring the total it has filed challenging in-state
tuition to 25. According
to the department, it has prevailed in lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and
Kansas.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in the release.

The complaint seeks
to keep colleges and
universities from providing in-state tuition or financial aid for immigrants, regardless of legal status.

Hawaii has tangled previously with the federal
government.

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In one high profile case, the DOJ intervened to try
to block the state from
suing fossil fuel companies including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell alleging deceptive marketing to
prolong use of fuels that worsen carbon pollution and the damage it causes. The federal government argued Hawaii’s state lawsuit was an attempt to “regulate emissions” in violation of the Clean Air Act and usurp the federal government’s “exclusive authority over interstate and foreign commerce, greenhouse gas regulation and national energy policy.”