Judge Halts Trump Order Tying State Transportation Grants to Immigration Actions

A Rhode Island federal judge blocked an order that would have yanked billions of federal dollars for roads, bridges and airport projects in states that don’t aid in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

U.S. District Judge John James McConnell Jr. granted a preliminary injunction late Thursday to the 20 Democratic-led states that brought the case against the U.S. Department of Transportation as well as DOT Secretary Sean Duffy.

McConnell’s order only applies to the 20 plaintiff states, which he wrote are likely to succeed in the case because Duffy acted outside his authority when he placed new eligibility requirements on funds already allocated by Congress for a specific purpose.

McConnell delivered the ruling ahead of a Friday deadline for infrastructure grant funding applications.

The states that brought the suit are California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Appropriations power

“Defendents seek to hold hostage tens of billions of dollars of critical transportation funding in order to force the plaintiff states to become mere arms of the federal government’s immigration enforcement policies,” Delbert Tran of the California Department of Justice, who argued on behalf of the states, said.

Arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, Bloom said that Duffy’s letter simply directs the states to follow federal immigration law.

The judge said Bloom’s argument expressed a “very different” interpretation of the directive than how the administration has described it publicly. He also noted President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have “railed on … the issues that arise from sanctuary cities.”

Undermines Congress

Tran said the Department of Transportation’s directive is not only arbitrary and capricious, but undermines congressional authority because Congress appropriated more than $100 billion for transportation projects to the states.

Cutting off funding would have disastrous consequences, the states have argued.

“More cars, planes, and trains will crash, and more people will die as a result, if Defendants cut off federal funding to Plaintiff States,” according to the brief from the states.