Legal Insurrection by William A. Jacobson 7/23/2025
Dept. Education Investigates Discrimination Against American-Born Students After Equal Protection Project ComplaintsDoEd Press Release: “These investigations are based on complaints submitted to OCR by the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project, which seeks to ensure equal protection under the law and non-discrimination by the government in any form.”The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org), which has filed legal challenges to DEI discrimination covering over almost 500 discriminatory programs and scholarships, recently filed five Civil Rights Complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education regarding scholarships that are open only to DACA-eligible or ‘undocumented’ students. Such scholarships by definition allow only student born abroad to apply, since DACA does not apply to American-born students, who also are not ‘undocumented.’ This constitutes discrimination on the basis of national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1963.
It’s important to note that we have not challenged whether DACA/Undocumented students can apply for scholarships, that’s a separate issue. The issue in our complaints is whether schools that receive federal funding and therefore are subject to the Civil Rights Act can promote and administer scholarships that exclude American-born students.
We have posted about three of these DACA/Undocumented legal challenges previously, which were among several types of discrimination challenged at these schools:
• Equal Protection Project Challenges 100th School – DACA-Only Scholarship At U. Nebraska Omaha
• “DACA and Undocumented” Scholarship and Others at U. Louisville Challenged By Equal Protection Project
• Eight Discriminatory Scholarships, Including DACA/Undocumented-Only, at Western Michigan U Challenged By Equal Protection Project
We recently filed two more Civil Rights Complaints that we have not had a chance to write up as blog posts yet:
• EPP OCR Complaint v. University of Miami
• EPP OCR Complaint v. University of Michigan (DACA Undocumented Scholarship)
Today the U.S. Department of Education issued a Press Release indicating that it had opened formal investigations:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened national origin discrimination investigations into the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University. The investigations will determine whether these universities are granting scholarships only for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or “undocumented” students, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s (Title VI) prohibition against national origin discrimination.
More:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/07/dept-education-investigates-discrimination-against-american-born-students-after-equal-protection-project-complaints/
