I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2374
To amend section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 to prohibit the provision of Federal financial
assistance to public institutions of higher education that provide certain
higher education benefits to aliens who are not lawfully present in the
United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH26, 2025
Ms. M
ACE(for herself, Mr. HARRISof Maryland, and Ms. BOEBERT) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To amend section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to prohibit
the provision of Federal financial assistance to public
institutions of higher education that provide certain high-
er education benefits to aliens who are not lawfully
present in the United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Students 2
First Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. RESTRICTING HIGHER EDUCATION BENEFITS FOR 4
ALIENS NOT LAWFULLY PRESENT. 5
Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 6
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1623) is 7
amended— 8
(1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘This section’’ 9
and inserting ‘‘Subsection (a)’’; and 10
(2) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ONFEDERALFINANCIALASSIST-12
ANCE.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A public institution of 14
higher education in a State may not receive any 15
Federal financial assistance for the fiscal year fol-16
lowing any fiscal year in which the Secretary of 17
Education determines that the institution is an ineli-18
gible institution under paragraph (2). 19
‘‘(2) I
NELIGIBILITY.—A public institution of 20
higher education in a State is an ineligible institu-21
tion for purposes of this subsection if the institu-22
tion— 23
‘‘(A) charges an alien who is not lawfully 24
present in the United States tuition for attend-25
ance at the institution at a rate that is less 26
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than or equal to the rate charged for residents 1
of the State who are citizens of the United 2
States; or 3
‘‘(B) provides State-based financial aid to 4
an alien who is not lawfully present in the 5
United States. 6
‘‘(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 7
‘‘(A) The term ‘Federal financial assist-8
ance’ has the meaning given such term in sec-9
tion 7501(a)(5) of title 31, United States Code. 10
‘‘(B) The term ‘institution of higher edu-11
cation’ has the meaning given such term in sec-12
tion 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 13
(20 U.S.C. 1001). 14
‘‘(C) The term ‘State’ has the meaning 15
given such term in section 103 of the Higher 16
Education Act of 1964 (20 U.S.C. 1003).’’. 17
Æ
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