A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government cannot require states to support federal immigration enforcement as a condition for receiving Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. The decision was announced after New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with 19 other attorneys general, challenged these conditions in court.
Attorney General James released a statement following the ruling: “The federal government cannot prioritize its cruel immigration agenda over Americans’ safety. Today, the court affirmed that it is blatantly unconstitutional for DHS to hold life-saving disaster relief funds hostage to advance its anti-immigration efforts.”
The lawsuit was filed in May against DHS, contesting what the coalition described as unlawful requirements that could have led to withholding emergency management and disaster relief funding from states not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted summary judgment in favor of the states, finding that these conditions violated both the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
