The Department of Education (ED) announced on Wednesday that it is opening investigations into five universities over policies that allegedly cater to illegal immigrants.
The University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of Miami are facing investigations after civil rights complaints allege the schools are illegally discriminating based on national origin to provide scholarships for students in the country illegally, according to the department.
“On January 21, 2025, President Trump promised that ‘every single day of the Trump Administration, [he] will, very simply, put America first.’ Neither the Trump Administration’s America first policies nor the Civil Right Act of 1964’s prohibition on national origin discrimination permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights, said in a statement announcing the investigations.
“As we mark President Trump’s historic six months back in the White House, we are expanding our enforcement efforts to protect American students and lawful residents from invidious national origin discrimination of the kind alleged here,” Trainor continued.
“The university has received a letter of notification relating to this matter. We have no further comment,” Kay Jarvis, director of public affairs at the University of Michigan, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Western Michigan University, the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of Miami did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
The universities each allegedly host scholarships available explicitly to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or illegal alien students, such as the University of Nebraska Omaha’s “Dreamer’s Pathway Scholarship” and the University of Louisville’s scholarship meant to “subsidize the cost of higher education…for undergraduate DACA and undocumented students,” according to ED.
“Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students. At the Equal Protection Project, we are gratified that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is acting on our complaints regarding scholarships that excluded American-born students,” William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, said in a statement. “Discrimination against American-born students must not be tolerated.”
The education department also stated it was investigating two more scholarships available at the Louisville university meant for “undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color” and “Latino/a/x and Hispanic students.” At the University of Nebraska Omaha, ED is investigating a scholarship that allegedly gives “preference…to underrepresented minority students,” and Western Michigan University’s scholarship for “African American, Native American, or Hispanic American” is similarly facing scrutiny.
The Trump administration has warned universities that illegal discrimination will not be tolerated and has since opened investigations into dozens of schools for alleged diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and racial preference policies.
In recent months, the administration sued states that allow aliens to qualify for in-state tuition prices at universities and took steps to end the taxpayer subsidization of career and technical education programs for illegal immigrants. The administration announced on June 30 that it was revoking nearly $7 billion in federal grants that went in part towards teaching English as a second language, saying the funds were being used to push “a radical leftwing agenda” and were sometimes going towards illegal immigrants.
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