A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of a “despicable attempt to bully states” into supporting immigration policies eligible for disaster relief.
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A federal judge on Tuesday accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security of trying to “bully” state and local governments into collaborating with President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign if they want to receive federal disaster relief funds.
Rhode Island Senior District Judge William Smith ruled on September 24 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS cannot require states that receive FEMA funds to support the administration’s unprecedented deportations and crime-fighting efforts using DHS’ federal agents.
FEMA then sent grant letters containing the same immigration enforcement conditions that the federal judge’s ruling blocked. They warned that this condition would come into effect immediately if Mr. Smith’s injunction was revoked or suspended.
Smith responded with a sharply worded order that the DHS ruling “does exactly what the Memorandum and Order prohibits, requiring plaintiff states to agree to assist with federal immigration enforcement or forgo the award of DHS grants.”
“No matter how confident the defendants may be in their chances of appeal, the contested terms are unlawful at this time,” Smith wrote in his Oct. 14 order.
Smith added that DHS’ new conditions for grant funding are “not a good faith effort to comply with the order, but a despicable attempt to bully states into making promises they don’t have to make, at the risk of losing major disaster or other funding that Congress has already appropriated.”
Smith, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002, ordered the Department of Homeland Security to remove references to immigration enforcement from disaster relief payments and issue revised grant letters within seven days.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin did not immediately comment on whether the department is appealing Smith’s ruling. But she told USA TODAY in an Oct. 15 statement that “cities and states that break the law and prevent the arrest of criminal illegal aliens should not receive federal funding.”
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law,” McLaughlin said. “Neither this lawsuit nor any other lawsuit will stop us from taking action.”
Smith’s ruling comes in a lawsuit brought by a Democratic-led coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia, which filed a lawsuit in May arguing that DHS cannot legally be pressured to use state and local resources for federal immigration operations.
Legal experts said Smith’s ruling could have ripple effects in other areas where the Trump administration seeks to impose conditions on federal funding, particularly in situations that appear coercive.
The Trump administration is already facing another legal challenge over its efforts to force state and local governments to enact policies that threaten to cut or limit federal funding.
On September 30, another federal judge, also in Rhode Island, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $233 million in counterterrorism aid to Democratic-led states such as New York and Illinois.
A day earlier, 11 states sued the Trump administration over last-minute changes to subsidies, claiming the president was retaliating by diverting funds away from Democratic-led states as soon as the fiscal year ended, Reuters reported at the time.
The states sought an immediate injunction to prevent the funds from expiring while they challenge the administrative case in court.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, agreed and issued a temporary restraining order, saying funding had been cut in a “slapstick” manner.
President Trump has also threatened to completely dismantle FEMA and shift much of the responsibility and cost of responding to natural disasters to state and local governments.
