Federal Judge Rules Trump Can’t Tie Transportation Funding to Immigration Policy

A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Trump administration can’t tie federal transportation funding to a city or state’s immigration policies, seemingly negating a weapon the administration has been yielding against so-called sanctuary states and cities. 

As Alex Nieves explains in Politico, “The decision represents another victory for Democrat-led states that have countered DOT’s attempts to disrupt transportation funding, including $5 billion for electric vehicle chargers that a judge in June ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze.”

In his preliminary injunction, Judge John McConnell wrote that the Trump administration did not cite “any plausible connection between cooperating with ICE enforcement and the congressionally approved purposes of the Department of Transportation.”