The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania State University, alleging the school is violating federal law by providing reduced tuition to illegal immigrants and not affording U.S. citizens the same reduced rate.

Federal law states that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”

Penn State is violating that law because it has a policy that gives illegal immigrants in-state tuition while not allowing U.S. citizens from other states to access the same rate, the 14-page complaint from the Department of Justice, filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, states.

Federal courts have struck down similar policies as unconstitutional, including in Kansas and Illinois, the complaint notes.

It asked the court to declare Penn State’s policy on illegal immigrants violative of the U.S. Constitution and permanently block the school from enforcing that and any subsequent, similar policy.

“The Department of Justice today continues its efforts to ensure that no state law or university policy gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our Nation’s own citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a statement. “Congress long ago made clear that states, through their public universities, cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans.”

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, in the department’s Civil Division, added: “Congress made a deliberate policy choice that states and their public institutions may not grant tuition benefits to illegal aliens unless those same benefits are made to all U.S. citizens. This university has ignored that mandate. The Department will continue to challenge policies that unlawfully disadvantage American citizens.”

A Penn State spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the university is aware of the complaint and is reviewing it.

The new lawsuit is the 27th the department has brought challenging in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

Some courts have ruled for the department.

A U.S. judge in July, for instance, said that Illinois law that provided in-state tuition for illegal immigrants was unconstitutional.

The law cited by U.S. officials, which says that a benefit available to illegal immigrants must be accessible by American citizens, “requires that the same benefit must be extended to citizens irrespective of their state of residence,” U.S. District Judge David Dugan wrote. “Put simply, U.S. citizens or nationals must be treated no worse than illegal aliens.”

An appeals court around the same time said Texas could not offer the in-state tuition rate to illegal immigrants.

The federal law in question bars “states from conferring postsecondary education benefits on any illegal alien based on residence unless the same benefit is available to all U.S. citizens and nationals irrespective of residency,” U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith wrote.

Other courts have sided with states.

That includes U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, who in March said that Minnesota laws were not discriminatory because students could qualify for in-state tuition at Minnesota colleges through multiple avenues, such as attending a high school in Minnesota, even if they do not reside in the state.