The U.S. Department of Justice won’t defend the Hispanic-Serving Institutions program against a lawsuit filed in June, declaring the government believes the grant funding is unconstitutional.
The federal program doles out $350 million annually to Hispanic-Serving Institutions, offering grant funding to colleges and universities with 25% or more full-time undergraduate Hispanic students.
The state of Tennessee and the anti-affirmative action organization Students for Fair Admissions sued the U.S. Department of Education, seeking to halt funding for the program. Critics argue that the federal funding is tied to unconstitutional racial quotas and violates equal protection.
The program was originally established by Congress in 1998, but in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, from the Office of Solicitor General John Sauer, the DOJ stated: “The Department of Justice has determined that those provisions violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.”
The Trump administration’s decision is part of sweeping measures to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies and cut off colleges that cater to illegal immigrants and pro-Palestinian activists.
In recent months, the DOJ has filed complaints against laws in Texas, Kentucky and Minnesota that provide in-state tuition rates to all immigrants who maintain state residency, regardless of their legal status.
Hispanic-Serving Institutions cannot directly give federal grants to undocumented students, as federal law prohibits them from receiving federal financial aid.
But HSI grants do support capacity building, student support services, recruitment and retention programs and research initiatives, particularly in STEM and food and agriculture fields.
The Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit states the HSI program “excludes colleges and universities that fall below its arbitrary ethnic threshold of 25% Hispanic.”
Awarding taxpayer-funded grants based on race or ethnicity enrollment quotas violates equal protection, according to the lawsuit.
“Funds should help needy students regardless of their immutable traits, and the denial of those funds harms students of all races,” the complaint states. “This Court should declare the HSI program’s discriminatory requirements unconstitutional, letting colleges and universities apply regardless of their ability to hit arbitrary ethnic targets.”
The College Fix reported the lawsuit comes after calls from American Civil Rights Project leaders, including Gail Heriot, Peter Kirsanow, and Daniel Morenoff, urging Congress to terminate Minority-Serving Institution programs.
Heriot, a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego and chair of the American Civil Rights Project, commended the decision in a post on X Friday.
“Thank you to Tennessee AG Skrmetti for filing the lawsuit. Thank you to Secretary McMahon & the Trump Administration for seeing that the program is unconstitutional,” the professor wrote.
I’ve been arguing this for years (& working to encourage a lawsuit). Thank you to Tennessee AG Skrmetti for filing the lawsuit. Thank you to Secretary McMahon & the Trump Administration for seeing that the program is unconstitutional. This may not be the end of the story. There… https://t.co/KjZLUMYcIg
— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) August 23, 2025
“Just imagine what would happen if the federal government decided it would give money only to institutions that are at least 25% white,” Heriot told The Fix in June.
The state of Tennessee currently has no schools that meet the Hispanic-serving requirements, EdSource reported.
“A federal grant system that openly discriminates against students based on ethnicity isn’t just wrong and un-American—it’s unconstitutional,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a news release.
What’s more, the 25% threshold “leaves many needy students out in the cold,” Skrmetti stated in the news release.
“The University of Memphis, for example, is ineligible for the grant despite its 61% minority enrollment because its student body is insufficiently diverse according to the federal government’s arbitrary requirement.”
The DOJ’s position follows a Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, which prohibits schools from making race-based decisions. The SFA group successfully challenged affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
More than 600 colleges have earned the HSI designation. They are located in 30 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with the majority of them located in urban areas, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
California, Texas, Puerto Rico, New York, Illinois, Florida, New Mexico and New Jersey are home to 497 HSIs or 81% of HSIs, per the association’s website.
The Hispanic association filed a motion last month to intervene as a defendant in the Tennessee lawsuit. In its court filing, the national association argues the grants are constitutional and provides necessary funding to support all students, the Associated Press reported
Historically Black or Native American tribal colleges and universities receive their designations based on their missions. Any college can receive the HSI label and grants if its Latino enrollment makes up at least 25% of the undergraduate student body.
The HSI Division provides “grant funding to institutions of higher education to assist with strengthening institutional programs, facilities, and services to expand the educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and other underrepresented populations,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The grants are used to improve scientific or lab equipment, construction or renovation projects, faculty development, academic tutoring, counseling programs, and student support services, among other initiatives, according to the department’s website.
Advocates claim the grants expand educational opportunities for Hispanic students by improving academic offerings and student outcomes.
EdSource reported the HSI program arose out of concerns that institutions that serve Latinos were poorly funded by the government. Studies show those schools receive far less in state and federal funding than other institutions.
Data also found that Latino students were going to college and graduating at far lower rates than white students.
“These institutions are ideally enrolling large numbers of low-income students regardless of race, and they are under-resourced,” Emmanual Guillory, the senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education, told the New York Times.
Former President Joe Biden made Hispanic universities a priority, signing an executive action last year that promised a new presidential advisory board and increased funding. President Donald Trump revoked the order his first day in office, the AP reported.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Education has ended taxpayer subsidization of illegal immigration in career, technical and adult education programs, along with waivers that had previously allowed some colleges to use federal grant money from programs, like TRIO, to serve undocumented students.
