When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) with her comment about the Department of Education’s plans to end free tuition for “illegals,” as in undocumented residents, she did not get the response she was likely after. Some of the comments are in support of what she shared, while others were quick to point out flaws. In her post, Leavitt wrote, “Trump’s Education Dept Ends Free Tuition For Illegals.”
When users on X commented on the post to share their reactions and thoughts, not everyone applauded the Trump administration. Some of them downright challenged what Leavitt was trying to say. Her post was in reference to an article by right-wing website Daily Caller about federal funding that once went to immigrants in the United States. But, according to some, Leavitt’s post on X and the article’s claims make little sense.
Karoline Leavitt said that Trump stopped ‘illegals’ from getting student aid.
According to the Daily Caller, the Department of Education officially ended a program set up decades ago, when former President Bill Clinton was in office. The program, called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, provided a welfare reform program for low income residents in the US. Among other things, PRWORA created grant programs for states to allocate funds for those in need.
While Leavitt’s claims and those in Daily Caller article are that PRWORA once provided free tuition to undocumented individuals in the US, that’s not necessarily the case. According to Congress, under the PRWORA, individuals labeled as unauthorized noncitizens, or undocumented immigrants, were not eligible for many of the grants offered under the PRWORA. The act did allow states to make decisions individually, but now, the Department of Education has apparently ended this program.
Critics pointed out flaws in Leavitt’s logic.
When Leavitt shared the Daily Caller article in her X post, users left comments to point out discrepancies in Leavitt’s claims that the act formerly offered totally free education to undocumented individuals. One user commented to ask, “How could an illegal get into university?” When someone replied to show them proof that some undocumented immigrants did enroll in college, the user responded that they were enrolled in “nothing federally funded.”
Someone else responded to Leavitt’s X post with: “If they are ‘Illegals’ then there is no way for them to get into university correct? Or is this that weird thing where you take people that are legally here to study…wait for them to criticize Israel…then revoke their permits?”
People in favor of ending all funding for people who are not American citizens applauded Leavitt for sharing the post. But many believe things aren’t as simple as the post implies.
While programs that have funded undocumented immigrants’ educations have existed, it’s not as clear cut as it seems. Elsewhere on X, one user pointed this out when they replied to the news of the program being eliminated.
“It really wasn’t a thing,” they wrote. “Undocumented students remain ineligible for federal aid, and the Trump administration’s actions have focused on eliminating state-level in-state tuition rates and benefits, not ‘free tuition’ per se.”
