New Mexico joins lawsuit to block Trump order halting federal funding

New Mexico has joined a coalition of state attorneys general in a lawsuit to block an order from the White House budget office intended to freeze all federal grant programs by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

New Mexico, joined by 22 other states and the District of Columbia, asks a federal judge to block President Trump’s order freezing trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans pending a review of the programs.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Tuesday announced the state’s participation in the suit and said the Office of Management and Budget memorandum had created a “state of chaos” in critical programs such as Medicaid.

“Today, we have received reports of people who are trying to access various programs that support everything from housing grants for tribal communities to Medicaid disruptions and even an inability to access the funding portal for Head Start,” he said.

Torrez said the Medicaid portal was temporarily shut down on Tuesday, causing “a bit of a scramble” among state officials. But Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office reported that the portal was reactivated later in the day, he said.

“We are still waiting confirmation that the (Medicaid) portal itself is processing payments in the normal way,” Torrez said.

Several news outlets reported that a federal judge in the District of Columbia blocked Trump’s order late Tuesday afternoon.

“The speed with which we have had a judicial intervention, I think, speaks to the carelessness with which the Trump administration has engaged in this type of conduct,” Torrez said of the report.

The lawsuit comes one week after New Mexico and 17 other states sued Trump to block an executive order redefining the constitutional principle of birthright citizenship, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

Torrez cited other possible impacts on Tuesday, including reports that tribal communities have been unable to access federal Housing and Urban Development grants. Other reports included a halt to online funding for Head Start, an early childhood program, he said.

Without offering specific examples, Torrez said a federal funding freeze also could affect law enforcement programs. He called the OMB memorandum “extraordinarily vague” and criticized the lack of communication with federal and state partners.