The Trump administration is upending norms and policies across the American educational system. One of the many groups facing uncertainty are prospective and current students living in the country without legal authorization.

For those students, applying to and attending college has long been a complicated, patchwork process that varies greatly across states.

In August 2025, the Department of Justice sued Oklahoma for a state law that allowed Oklahoma students living in the country without legal permission to pay a lower tuition rate that is guaranteed to in-state residents.

The Department of Justice also sued Kentucky, Texas and Minnesota over the summer on the same grounds.

Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma have all announced they will no longer offer in-state tuition to students who are living in the U.S. illegally. Minnesota is currently challenging the Justice Department’s lawsuit.

Amy Lieberman, the education editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with Vanessa Delgado, a scholar of Latino families and their educational experiences, to understand the higher education pathways for students living in the U.S. without legal authorization – and how the Trump administration is affecting their options.

How large is the population of students who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization?

There are 408,000 undocumented students........

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