The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Colorado to dismantle a decade‑old law that grants in‑state tuition to students living illegally in the United States, setting up a high‑stakes clash over immigration policy.

In 2013, after more than six tries in a decade, Colorado legislators passed Senate Bill 33, also known as the ASSET Act, which granted in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who graduated from Colorado high schools.

ASSET — Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow — passed with support from Democrats and Republicans in both chambers, including from some of Colorado’s most conservative lawmakers.

SB 33 was co-sponsored by then-state Sen. Michael Johnston, now the Denver mayor, and signed into law by then-governor Sen. John Hickenlooper, now a U.S. senator.

Under ASSET, students living in the U.S. illegally may pay in‑state tuition rates at Colorado’s public colleges if they attended a Colorado high school for at least three years and graduated or earned a GED. Until its repeal in 2025, the law also required students to sign an affidavit stating they would seek citizenship.

The Justice Department is now seeking to dismantle Colorado’s ASSET law, filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that asks a judge to block the state from offering in‑state tuition to undocumented students.

In announcing the suit Thursday, Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward said Congress bars states from granting education benefits to immigrants living here illegally unless those same benefits are available to all U.S. citizens.

The ASSET law violates federal law and subsidizes education for undocumented students at taxpayers’ expense, he added.

Johnston said Thursday that he sponsored the bill — as he had in 2011 — for students he had taught who were shut out of opportunities despite growing up in Colorado.

“Students who worked as hard and dreamed as big as anyone else were then told they didn’t count as Coloradans,” he said, calling the lawsuit “a slap in the face to countless Colorado children.” The Denver mayor, who had clashed with the Trump administration over the city’s “sanctuary” immigration policies, vowed to fight the lawsuit.

The DOJ also claimed the state law constitutes “blatant, unequal treatment favoring illegal aliens over U.S. citizens.” Specifically, the lawsuit cited caselaw saying undocumented students may not receive in-state tuition unless out-of-state American citizens receive the same benefit.

The lawsuit referenced a case out of Nebraska, where the court held that federal law preempted that state’s statutes because they allowed “aliens unlawfully present in the United States to qualify as ‘residents’ of Nebraska for the purpose of post-secondary education benefits but deny such benefits to United States citizens of other states.”

While the number of students receiving ASSET benefits isn’t known, the Higher Education Immigration Portal estimates that out of nearly 350,000 students enrolled in Colorado colleges and universities, about 6,681 do not have legal status.

The portal classifies Colorado as a “Comprehensive Access” state in terms of inclusive in-state tuition and state financial aid policies for undocumented students. The portal tracks state policies for undocumented students on in-state tuition, state financial aid, professional and occupational licensure and driver licenses.

Democratic Sen. Hickenlooper criticized the Trump administration’s decision to sue.

“Instead of actually working to fix our broken immigration system, the Trump administration is trying to reignite yesterday’s culture wars,” Hickenlooper said. “These young people, many of whom have never had a home other than Colorado, want an education so they can build their lives.”

The DOJ lawsuit seeks to enjoin Colorado from enforcing the law, thereby preventing financial assistance and scholarships for students living in the country illegally.

This is the 14th lawsuit the DOJ has filed, challenging in-state tuition for undocumented students. Lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Nebraska have succeeded in blocking those educational benefits.

Similar lawsuits are pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland.