By Ginika Igboke
A federal judge in Rhode Island has blocked the Trump administration’s effort to divert Homeland Security funding from states that do not assist with certain federal immigration enforcement measures.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy ruled Monday in favor of a coalition of 12 attorneys general who sued the administration after several states were notified they would receive reduced federal grants because of their sanctuary jurisdiction policies.
The order applies to funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which together had cut more than $233 million from Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The funds are part of a roughly $1 billion program based on risk assessments and are primarily used to support local law enforcement and emergency services.
Attorneys general from states including California, Illinois, and New Jersey joined the lawsuit, seeking to challenge the legality of the administration’s policy.
In her 48-page decision, McElroy concluded that the funding cuts improperly factored in states’ stances on immigration enforcement.
“What else could defendants’ decisions to cut funding to specific counterterrorism programming by conspicuous round numbered amounts—including by slashing off the millions-place digits of awarded sums—be if not arbitrary and capricious?” McElroy wrote. “Neither a law degree nor a degree in mathematics is required to deduce that no plausible, rational formula could produce this result.”
McElroy ordered DHS to restore the previously announced funding allocations to the states involved in the lawsuit.
She criticized what she described as an abuse of authority in administering federal grants, emphasizing that the funding supports essential counterterrorism and law enforcement efforts.
“Defendants’ wanton abuse of their role in federal grant administration is particularly troublesome given the fact that they have been entrusted with a most solemn duty: safeguarding our nation and its citizens,” she wrote.
McElroy also pointed to a recent attack at Brown University, in which two students were killed and nine others injured, as an example of the type of incident for which the federal funding program is designed to help prepare and respond.
“To hold hostage funding for programs like these based solely on what appear to be defendants’ political whims is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful,” the judge stated.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the department plans to challenge the ruling.
“This judicial sabotage threatens the safety of our states, counties, towns, and weakens the entire nation,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “We will fight to restore these critical reforms and protect American lives.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was filed in September by 11 states and the District of Columbia, arguing that the administration’s directive to cut funding to sanctuary jurisdictions violated federal law and was intended to coerce compliance with immigration policies.
The ruling follows a series of similar decisions. In October, a federal judge permanently blocked DHS from withholding $34 million in transportation security funding from New York City over its sanctuary status. An August decision barred funding cuts to 34 cities and counties based on sanctuary policies, and an April ruling blocked broader efforts to defund sanctuary cities such as San Francisco and Santa Clara, California.
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