California, New York and 18 other states have sued the Trump administration, claiming it illegally conditioned billions of dollars in federal funding on immigration enforcement.
A duo of lawsuits filed Tuesday in federal court in Rhode Island accused the administration of overstepping Congress by threatening to withhold funding for emergency preparedness and transportation infrastructure. States suing include Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois.
“By hanging a halt in this critical funding over states like a sword of Damocles, the defendants impose immense harm on states, forcing them to choose between readiness for disasters and emergencies, on the one hand, and their judgment about how best to investigate and prosecute crimes, on the other,” the states said in the first complaint, which names the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security as defendants. The other case targets the Department of Transportation.
The legal actions come after the Trump administration in recent months has imposed immigration-enforcement conditions on grants related to homeland security and transportation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a letter in late April that states’ cooperation with federal law must include ensuring that driver licenses are not issued to undocumented immigrants.
“President [Donald] Trump doesn’t have the authority to unlawfully coerce state and local governments into using their resources for federal immigration enforcement,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. He said during a press conference that a freeze on funding is “imminent.”
California stands to lose $15.7 billion in DOT grants that help maintain infrastructure, including highways, aircraft routes and bridges, Bonta’s office said in the statement. The most populous state also relies on $20.6 billion in DHS funding to bolster emergency preparedness and counter-terrorism efforts, according to the statement.
Spokespeople for DOT, DHS and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In late April, a U.S. judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to stop providing federal funds for local services to city and county governments with sanctuary policies. Hours after the ruling in San Francisco, the administration sued Rochester, New York, arguing that its sanctuary policies are “illegal,” after previously suing Illinois and Chicago in February.
