Federal judge halts restrictions on emergency funding tied to immigration policies

A federal judge handed a victory this week to New Mexico and 19 other states suing to block the Trump administration’s effort to make emergency funding conditional on compliance with immigration enforcement policy.

The judge issued an order Wednesday that stops the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing conditions for federal disaster grants and management programs, court records show.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith, District of Rhode Island, ruled that conditions set by DHS are “overboard and unrelated to the underlying programs.”

Smith also called the conditions “coercive” for states that rely on DHS grants “for billions of dollars annually in disaster relief and public safety funds that cannot be replaced by state revenues.”

Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a plaintiff in the suit, cheered the ruling, which he said ensures “emergency relief from natural disasters without conditions.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, which is defending the DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, could appeal the decision, Torrez’s office said.

“It is unconscionable that the Trump Administration would threaten to withhold emergency relief funds as a way to leverage states to participate in their reckless policy of indiscriminate immigration enforcement,” Torrez said in a statement.

Smith’s order granted the states’ request for a permanent injunction blocking DHS and FEMA from imposing the conditions.

“Denying such funding if states refuse to comply with vague immigration requirements leaves them with no meaningful choice, particularly where state budgets are already committed,” Smith wrote.

The lawsuit will have no impact on emergency grants New Mexico has already received, said Chelsea Pitvorec, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Justice.

“This ruling means that FEMA is prohibited from imposing these requirements on Department of Homeland Security grants the plaintiff states in this lawsuit may receive in the future,” she said.

The lawsuit stemmed from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January that directed DHS to deny funding to “sanctuary jurisdictions” that, in the administration’s view, fail to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

On Feb. 19, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem followed up with a memo “restricting grant funding for sanctuary jurisdictions.”

Conditions set by DHS included prohibiting restrictions on sharing information with DHS about a person’s citizenship or immigration status and requiring state and local governments to give federal agents access to inmates in jails and prisons.