The Trump administration is laying the groundwork to potentially deny federal transportation funding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other regional transit partners if local officials do not cooperate with federal immigration actions.
In a Thursday memo sent from the Department of Transportation, obtained by Crain’s, the agency issued new guidance on which transit entities and projects it will prioritize for federal grants and loans. One of the new priorities, according to the order, is that recipients cooperate with federal immigration officials, and rather vaguely, “other goals and objectives specified by the President.”
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said that the authority has not provided new guidance to its employees on how to interact with federal immigration officials should they encounter them on the city’s mass transit. But he said the MTA will comply with future federal actions on mass transit and its properties related to criminal investigations. He did not say whether MTA would collaborate with non-targeted patrols on mass transit by ICE agents, similar to the line set by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams for state and city workers.
Donovan declined to comment on any potential immigration enforcement actions that may be taking place on the city’s mass transit, and referred Crain’s to federal officials. ICE did not return requests for comment, and neither did the U.S. DOT.
The federal government, via the DOT, is a massive funding source of the MTA’s transformative transit projects. For example, the Federal Transportation Administration, which is an agency within U.S DOT, is kicking in a $3.4 billion grant to help finance phase two of the Second Avenue subway into Harlem.
Thursday’s memo also notes that local agencies and entities that receive federal transit dollars are barred from “imposing vaccine and mask mandates” — measures Hochul and the MTA have implemented in the past.
The Office of the General Counsel will provide legal advice and guidance to federal transit officials on carrying out the order, according to the memo. As part of those efforts, staffers will “review their existing grant agreements, loan agreements and contracts, and, to the extent permitted by law, unilaterally amend the general terms and conditions as necessary to ensure compliance,” states the order.
The memo is signed by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Patrick Duffy, who only Tuesday was confirmed by U.S. Senate lawmakers as the secretary.
Hochul’s office also did not immediately return requests for comment on the financial upheaval the order could pose for the MTA.
Transportation advocates bristled at the implication that the order is geared toward forcing officials to comply with immigration enforcement actions that may unfold within mass transit.
“Searching for people’s papers in public transit is a recipe for disaster. It won’t make anyone safe; it’s the opposite of efficient government,” said Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director of mass transit advocacy group the Riders Alliance.
“All transit riders want and deserve to be safe,” added Pearlstein, “in order for that to be possible, law enforcement needs to take a targeted approach.”
The Trump administration is also considering finding a way to halt the MTA’s congestion pricing program, The New York Times reported Thursday.
