CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is again targeting higher education in Virginia, filing a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the Commonwealth’s laws that allow for in-state tuition for undocumented students who have resided there for at least two years is in violation of federal law.

Bondi’s filing, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District, Richmond Division, argues that students who do not have citizenship should not be eligible for discounted, in-state tuition while students from other states are not.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: in Virginia and nationwide, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement announcing the filing. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”

The DOJ has filed similar lawsuits in California, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota. Oklahoma and Texas.

“Federal law prohibits States from providing aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States with any postsecondary education benefit that is denied to U.S. citizens,” the federal lawsuit states. “There are no exceptions. Virginia violates it nonetheless.”

The DOJ announcement also points to a pair of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump aimed at curbing education support for immigrants – Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders and “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens.”