A coalition of 20 state Democratic attorneys general filed two federal lawsuits on Tuesday, claiming that the Trump administration is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation and disaster-relief funds unless states agree to certain immigration enforcement actions.
According to the complaints, both Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have threatened to cut off funding to states that refuse to comply with President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
While no federal funding is currently being withheld, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a press conference on Tuesday that the threat was “imminent.”
“President Donald Trump can’t use these funds as a bargaining chip as his way of ensuring states abide by his preferred policies,” Bonta added.
Email messages seeking comment were sent Tuesday to the departments of Transportation and Homeland Security.
Both lawsuits say that the Trump administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by trying to dictate federal spending when Congress has that power — not the executive branch.
On April 24, states received letters from the Department of Transportation stating that they must cooperate on immigration efforts and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs or risk losing funds.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin criticized the timing of Duffy’s letter when Newark’s airport struggles with radar outages and other issues.
“I wish the administration would stop playing politics with people’s lives,” Platkin said. “I wish Secretary Duffy would do his damn job, which is to make sure planes land on time, not to direct immigration enforcement.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul also criticized the administration, calling those funds, “quite literally, lifesaving.”
“This critical funding has nothing to do with immigration, and the administration’s attempts to hold it hostage unless states agree to do the federal government’s job of civil immigration enforcement is unconstitutional and outrageous,” Raoul said. “I am proud of the continued collaboration between state attorneys general and am committed to using all tools at our disposal to fight the Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to play politics with Americans’ lives.”
Meanwhile, on Feb. 24, states received letters from the Department of Homeland Security declaring that states that “refuse to cooperate with, refuse to share information with, or even actively obstruct federal immigration enforcement reject these ideals and the history we share in common as Americans.”
“If any government entity chooses to thumb its nose at the Department of Homeland Security’s national security and public safety mission, it should not receive a single dollar of the Department’s money unless Congress has specifically required it,” Noem wrote in her letter.
Attorneys general behind the lawsuits include the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.
“Law enforcement agents across Minnesota work hard to protect and serve their communities, and we are truly grateful for all they do. Decisions about how police resources should be allocated to maintain public safety are made at the local level because every community has different safety needs,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. “It is both wrong and unlawful for the Trump Administration to demand Minnesota law enforcement step away from their patrols, investigations, and community-engagement work to instead enforce federal immigration law.”
“These funds are meant to repair aging roads and bridges, strengthen public safety, and ensure law enforcement has the tools they need to act quickly in emergency situations. By clawing back this already-allocated funding, Donald Trump’s White House is prioritizing political posturing over the safety and well-being of Americans,” added Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
The cases are being spearheaded by California but were filed in federal court in Rhode Island, a detail that the attorneys general defended by saying they filed an “any court that is going to be fair and objective and consider our factual presentation and legal analysis.”
The lawsuits are the latest legal actions that Democratic-led states have taken against Trump since he took office earlier this year. Bonta noted that California has filed more than 20 lawsuits against the administration, while Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said his state has launched more than a dozen.
While the lawsuits have challenged policies on tariffs, federal employee firings to health care research, Trump’s focus on immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally have received the most attention.
This has included the president’s promise to mass deport people to the start of a registry required for all those who are in the country illegally.
“What we’re seeing is a creeping authoritarianism,” Neronha said.
