The Brief

When President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January 2025, nearly two dozen states allowed their respective undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition.

Since then, the Trump administration and the president’s allies have worked to dismantle those policies, most of which have been in place for at least a decade. Through lawsuits, the administration says out-of-state students have less access to a “postsecondary education benefit” than undocumented students — a practice it says is forbidden by federal law and that amounts to discrimination against U.S. citizens.

Undocumented students who live in places where in-state tuition has been reversed are already encountering serious obstacles. They don’t qualify for federal financial aid and, faced with significantly higher tuition rates, some of these students are scaling back on their course load, or taking time off to work and save up for school. Others have been compelled to quit.

Most undocumented students were children when they were brought to this country. Nationally, they make up a tiny fraction of the overall college population. They also represent a small percentage of California’s higher ed demographics.

Still, these students number in the tens of thousands. And for each and every one of those undocumented Californians, ending the in-state tuition policy could be calamitous.

Some legal experts believe the U.S. Department of Justice will likely sue California. But they also expect that this state’s law will be harder to dismantle.

When did states begin offering in-state tuition to undocumented students?

In June 2001, Texas made history by becoming the first to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students when then-Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the Texas Dream Act into law with bipartisan support. In the ensuing years, Washington, D.C., and at least 25 other states followed suit.

California’s AB 540, also signed into law in 2001, offers in-state tuition to undocumented students, U.S. citizens, TPS and U visa holders and lawfully present immigrants who meet eligibility criteria.

Broadly speaking, to qualify, students must have:

• Attended at least three years of high school, adult school or community college in California.
• Obtained a high school diploma or equivalent, an associate’s degree or fulfilled the minimum requirements to transfer to the University of California or California State University.

The exemption from out-of-state tuition saves those students a lot of money. For the 2026-27 academic year, for instance, nonresident undergrads are expected to pay $51,858 in tuition to attend a UC — compared with $15,384 for residents.

Former undocumented students have told LAist that AB 540 made higher education feasible. Because they don’t qualify for federal financial aid, undocumented students rely on state-based support, limited scholarship opportunities and their wages to pay for school.

How has the Trump administration pressured states?

In February, Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed a law to reverse in-state tuition for undocumented students in Florida. Soon after, Trump issued two executive orders that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, aim to “ensure illegal aliens are not obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.” The executive orders do not acknowledge that undocumented people pay local and federal taxes. (In fact, to speed up mass deportation efforts, the IRS is building a system to share taxpayer data with ICE.) The second executive order specifically took issue with “laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State U.S. American citizens.”

In June, the DOJ sued Texas, calling for the end of the Texas Dream Act. The department and the state reached a settlement that same day.

As NBC reported, a deputy associate attorney general celebrated the quick turnaround at a private gathering, noting that “because [the DOJ was] able to have that line of communication and talk in advance [with the state’s attorney general], a statute that’s been a problem for the state for 24 years, we got rid of it in six hours.”

Since then, the DOJ has gone on to sue Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma and, most recently, Illinois. Kentucky and Oklahoma also settled with the department.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a Latino civil rights nonprofit, has filed motions against in-state tuition reversals on behalf of undocumented students in Texas and Kentucky. In an email, Thomas A. Saenz, the organization’s president and general counsel, said “the district court denied our clients’ motion to intervene, but we have appealed that decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.” The organization is also waiting for the U.S. and Kentucky to file any opposition.

Saenz underscored that “under these laws, undocumented residents of the state pay the same tuition as other state residents; this is not some special lower tuition rate solely for undocumented students. Like other resident students, the undocumented students’ families have contributed taxes and economic growth that helps pay for public colleges, and the students have demonstrated the same success and commitment in education as other resident students.”

What could happen in California?

Asked whether the Trump administration is likely to take similar action against this state, Saenz said: “[The DOJ] may eventually sue California, but California’s law is far less vulnerable than the states sued thus far.”

He said that the federal law the Trump administration is attempting to use to strike down these laws only relates to granting tuition based on residence. California law, he added, “does not consider or mention residence at all in granting regular tuition to undocumented students.”

Kevin Johnson, professor of law and Chicana/o Studies at UC Davis, also believes the Trump administration is likely to sue the Golden state.

“[Trump] has such a bee in his bonnet about California being a sanctuary state and seems to have a difficult relationship with our governor,” he said.

The Trump administration, Johnson added, probably decided to sue Texas and Kentucky first, “knowing that they would get very limited opposition from the attorney generals” — as opposed to starting with California, “where [Attorney General Rob Bonta] is going to be very aggressive in defending AB 540.”

In an email statement, Bonta's press office told LAist: "We remain committed to defending California’s laws, values and people from the Trump Administration’s attacks."

“This is strategic lawyering,” Johnson continued. “I think the Trump administration is angling to get this issue before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“The Supreme Court focuses on resolving what are called ‘circuit splits,’ where different courts in different jurisdictions reach different conclusions,” Johnson said. “So the Trump administration can say: ‘Supreme Court, please address this, because we need a clearer national resolution of the issue.”

What happens next?  

In Johnson’s view, the push to end in-state tuition is part of broader efforts to make life unbearable for undocumented people.

The Trump administration, he wrote in a follow up email, is pulling “all [the] various levers of the federal government.”

The "roving patrols;" the executive order to end to birthright citizenship; the Department of Homeland Security’s “self-deportation” campaign; the building of “Alligator Alcatraz,” “Speedway Slammer” and the “Deportation Depot” — all of this, he said, is “designed to terrorize the undocumented community” and pressure families to leave.

Andy Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers won back-to-back games in Atlanta to take the best-of-five matchup 3-1 and advance to the National League Championship Series as they seek to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series.

Pages lined a 3-2 pitch from Robert Suarez up the middle to drive in Teoscar Hernández, who singled off starter Tyler Mahle, and pinch-runner Tommy Edman for a 3-1 lead. Didier Fuentes walked pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases. Edman ran for De Paula.

Max Muncy’s solo shot off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth padded the lead and gave the slugger 19 postseason homers with the Dodgers, extending his franchise record.

Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow, making his first start since Sept. 24, allowed only one hit but walked five batters in 4 2/3 innings. After he issued two walks in the fifth, left-hander Alex Vesia ended the inning on Matt Olson’s groundout to second base.

The missed opportunity left the Braves with 18 walks in the series, and none scored.

Glasnow and four relievers combined to give up just three hits. Tanner Scott pitched a perfect eighth before Edwin Díaz got three quick outs for the save.

Mahle, a native of Newport Beach, California, who grew up a Dodgers fan, allowed two runs — one earned — in 6 1/3 innings.

Michael Harris II hit Glasnow’s first pitch for a single before stealing second and eventually scoring from third on a wild pitch that bounced off catcher Will Smith’s chest protector.

The Dodgers pulled even in the second with the help of two Atlanta errors. Shohei Ohtani walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Sean Murphy’s errant throw into center field. Muncy’s pop fly into shallow left field was dropped by shortstop Mauricio Dubón for another error, allowing Ohtani to score.

Hernández crashed into the wall while attempting to catch Ozzie Albies’ double off Vesia leading off the sixth. Hernández pointed to his head and neck when talking to an athletic trainer but remained in the game.

Edgardo Henriquez stranded Albies at second. Henriquez allowed one hit in 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Injury report

Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas was held out after leaving Tuesday night’s 3-1 win during an at-bat in the eighth inning with lower back soreness. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Rojas would not be available off the bench.

Ronald Acuña Jr. started in right field for Atlanta one day after being moved to designated hitter in a late lineup change due to right knee soreness.

Up next

The Dodgers will face Milwaukee or San Diego in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday sued President Donald Trump’s administration for recent television advertisements that promoted his political message while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accuses Trump of personally directing them. It asks the court to declare the ads illegal and stop the use of federal funds to pay for them.

Trump has faced bipartisan backlash for the ads, which glorify him and echo his campaign pitch as voters cast early ballots with the midterm elections less than a month away.

The spots, which began airing in September, already have cost more than $12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact, and a total of $20 million in Homeland Security Department funding has been tapped to pay for them.

Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended the ads as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d pay for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.

But on Tuesday, the fifth ad in the campaign began airing with the notice “paid for by the U.S. Government,” promoting Trump’s military actions in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”

“Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes,” he added.

Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a $175 million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. Legal experts have said the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren’t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs.

The defendants in the lawsuit — Trump, the White House, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fall has only just begun, but it's already time to start thinking about the quintessential winter bug: the flu.

The annual flu season usually starts in October or November. But this year, it looks like the flu started to pick up in early September.

"There are enough signs pointing in the same direction to make me think, 'OK, yes. This is the start of flu season,'" says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The percentage of people testing positive for the flu in the West has been rising steadily since around the beginning of September, she says. And the number of people showing up in emergency departments because of the flu has also been rising for weeks, she adds.

"It's very uncommon to see flu activity rising this early. It's activity that we might normally see more like November or December," she says.

The timing of the flu season isn't the only thing that's odd. It's also unusual that flu activity seems to have started in Western states, such as California, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska.

"It typically starts in the South and then expands from there," Rivers says. "So two uncommon developments there."

Rivers stresses that the amount of flu activity is still very low in most parts of the country. But that's starting to change as the flu picks up nationwide.

It's unclear why flu activity would have started so early, and in such an unusual part of the country. But one clue might be a new variant that evolved a mutation, which appears to make it better at evading existing immunity, especially among teenagers.

"That's our best argument for what's going on right now in terms of this early flu season," says Dr. Alex Greninger, a virologist who heads infectious disease diagnostics at the University of Washington. Doctors there are seeing as much flu right now as they usually would around Christmas, and the mutated variant appears to be common, he says.

So Greninger, Rivers and others are urging people to think about getting their flu shot earlier than usual.

"It's crucial that people get an influenza vaccine," says Scott Hensley, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania. "And this might be a year that people might want to get a vaccine early."

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't been promoting flu shots as it usually does. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, is a long-time vaccine skeptic.

"It is disappointing that CDC is quiet given that flu kills of hundreds of kids a year and can result in tens of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths," says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned last year as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protest what he called political interference at the agency.

The CDC declined to make an official available to NPR for this story. In a statement, a CDC spokesperson said, "CDC is developing a communications strategy to provide clear, accessible information about influenza vaccination and other critical steps people can take to protect themselves during respiratory virus season. This includes information about the benefits and risks of vaccination to support informed decision-making."
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