Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Date Filed

July 21, 2025

Docket No.

OCR Case Number 15-25-2276

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed; OCR Initiated Investigation

Case Overview

On July 21, 2025, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a Civil Rights Complaint with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against the University of Michigan (UM) “for discrimination in the Dreamer Scholarship open only to DACA/undocumented students in violation of Title VI.”

The Complaint continued:

The scholarship listed below is currently offered to UM students and applicants for admission, according to the UM website, and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations by illegally discriminating against students based on their national origin. Because UM is a public university, this discriminatory scholarship also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Complaint then used UM’s own website to demonstrate the discriminatory nature of the “Dreamer Scholarship.”

The Complaint then explained why the Dreamers Scholarship violates federal law:

Because DACA only applies to persons born outside the United States who meet certain additional criteria, restricting scholarship eligibility to DACA recipients constitutes discrimination based on national origin and violates Title VI. Similarly, “undocumented” status only applies to students born outside the United States. This scholarship discriminates against American-born students. (citation omitted for clarity). . . .

 

As UM is a public university, its offering, promoting, and administering this discriminatory scholarship also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

 

UM’s Dreamer Scholarship is presumptively invalid, and since there is no compelling government justification for such invidious discrimination, UM’s offering, promotion, and administration of this scholarship violates state and federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.

Finally, the Complaint requested OCR take action:

The Office for Civil Rights has the power and obligation to investigate UM’s role in creating, funding, promoting and administering this scholarship and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for that unlawful conduct. This includes, if necessary, imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance and referring the case to the Department of Justice for judicial proceedings to enforce the rights of the United States under federal law.

 

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights promptly open a formal investigation, impose such remedial relief as the law permits for the benefit of those who have been illegally excluded from UM’s scholarship based on discriminatory national origin criteria, and ensure that all ongoing and future scholarships and programming at UM comport with the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

OCR evaluated EPP’s Complaint for further action.

UPDATE: On July 21, 2025, EPP received a letter from OCR indicating that it was initiating an investigation into UM’s Dreamers Scholarship and whether that scholarship violates federal law.