Judge blocks Trump plan to tie states' transportation funds to immigration enforcement
Last edited Thu Jun 19, 2025, 07:28 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Guardian
Thu 19 Jun 2025 17.51 EDT
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.
Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states’ request for an injunction barring the Department of Transportation’s policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic state attorneys general who argued the administration was seeking to unlawfully hold federal funds hostage to coerce them into adhering to Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
The states argued the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, lacked the authority to impose immigration-enforcement conditions on funding that Congress appropriated to help states sustain roads, highways, bridges and other transportation projects.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/transportation-funds-immigration-enforcement-trump-lawsuit
Link to Attorney General of California PRESS RELEASE - Attorney General Bonta Secures Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Challenging Unlawful Immigration Enforcement Conditions on Grant Funding
Link to RULING (PDF) - https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/gov.uscourts.rid_.59601.57.0.pdf

moniss
(7,682 posts)whether funding can be pulled between states and Feds for things like Transportation projects etc. the other day.
https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20404610
BumRushDaShow
(156,503 posts)and I have been hunting around to get a copy of the ruling to add to the OP. Finally found something via a press release from the CA AG. Adding now...
ETA - here is a copy of the decision - https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/gov.uscourts.rid_.59601.57.0.pdf