Department Of Education Ends “Extremely Lawless” Handouts To Illegal Immigrant College Students

Authored by Rebecca Draeger via The College Fix,

A visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation praised the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to revoke waivers from California and Oregon universities which allowed them to use federal education funds to assist illegal immigrant college students.

The purpose of the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth program is to help students with disabilities and low-income students obtain a college education. However, the Biden administration allowed universities in California and Oregon to divert the funds to illegal immigrants, according to a department news release. Under the previous administration, TRIO programs could extend benefits to “illegal aliens.”

The waives have since been revoked, drawing praise from Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former deputy assistant for higher education programs in the first Trump administration.

“President Biden’s Department of Education was extremely lawless,” Kissel told The College Fix via email. 

“The current administration is bringing the rule of law back to federal education policy and programs.”

The Oregon Trio Association declined to comment on the revocation.

The Fix reached out to Oregon State University twice via email and by phone over the past two weeks but did not receive a response. The Fix also contacted the California State University System by phone but has not yet heard back.

Illegal aliens should not benefit from federal funding, Kissel said.

“No government, whether federal or state, should be using taxpayer dollars to provide benefits to illegal aliens,” the education expert told The Fix. 

“Ending the federal TRIO waivers is consistent with such a policy.”

Kissel noted that the assimilation is not a valid policy goal for someone who broke the law – “illegal aliens are here illegally and therefore should be deported. Calling someone ‘undocumented’ does not legalize their presence in America.”

The Fix contacted the National Immigration Law Center and the National Immigration Forum for comment on April 23 but did not receive a response.

California’s P3 waiver began in Nov. 2022 and was scheduled to run until 2026, while Oregon’s started in Oct. 2023 and was set to run until 2027, according to the Dept. of Ed.

Acting Under Secretary of the Department of Education James Bergeron said in the department’s release, “American taxpayer dollars will no longer be used to subsidize illegal immigrants through Department of Education programs … The Department will not allow the true purpose of the program to be corrupted to advance an American-last agenda.”

The Fix reached out to the Department of Education for further comment but was redirected back to the press release.

According to Kissel, both the Heritage Foundation and the Defense of Freedom Institute submitted regulatory comments to the Biden administration’s proposal to extend TRIO benefits.

“We advised the department to abandon that effort, and the department did,” he said.

This is not the only action the Trump administration may take on the TRIO programs. The president’s budget, which will face amendments from Congress, proposes eliminating the TRIO programs altogether.

Consistent with his pledge to downsize, if not eliminate the Dept. of Ed., Trump has called for eliminating TRIO and other related programs. The fiscal year 2026 budget calls them a “relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to engage with low-income students and increase access.”

“The lack of action by IHEs also meant that States and local school districts needed additional support to prepare low-income students for college,” the budget proposal states. 

“Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means.”

The Council for Opportunity in Education criticized the proposal, saying it “is a direct attack on students who dare to dream of college in the face of adversity.”