The department is investigating possible violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s ‘prohibition against national origin discrimination.’
The Department of Education’s civil rights office has opened investigations into five universities over scholarships alleged to exclude U.S.-born students, in the latest move by the Trump administration to scrutinize higher education programs on grounds of civil rights and national security.
The probes, announced in a July 23 statement, target the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska–Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University, following complaints submitted to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over scholarships that allegedly discriminate against U.S.-born individuals while favoring illegal immigrants.
“The investigations will determine whether these universities are granting scholarships only for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or ‘undocumented’ students,” the department said.
Such actions would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s Title VI “prohibition against national origin discrimination,” it said.
Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor described the investigations as part of President Donald Trump’s broader “America First” agenda.
“Neither the Trump administration’s America First policies nor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States,” Trainor said in a statement.
The complaints were filed by the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project, which has challenged similar scholarship programs at other universities. William Jacobson, the group’s founder, called the probes a welcome step toward ending “discrimination against American-born students.”
Programs cited in the complaints include Louisville’s Sagar Patagundi Scholarship, Nebraska Omaha’s Dreamer’s Pathway Scholarship, Miami’s U Dreamers Program, Michigan’s Dreamer Scholarship, and Western Michigan’s Undocumented/DACA Scholarship “for undergraduate students who are ineligible to receive federal student aid due to an undocumented or DACA status.”
The Education Department also said OCR would review other scholarships at schools that appear to exclude applicants based on race or color, such as aid reserved for Hispanic, African American, or “undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color.”
By Tom Ozimek
