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A federal judge has blocked trump Administration’s attempt to reallocate federal Homeland Security Receiving funding from states that refuse to cooperate with certain federal immigration enforcement.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy solidifies a victory for a coalition of 12 attorneys general who sued the administration earlier this year after they warned their states would receive a steep reduction in federal grants because of their “sanctuary” jurisdiction.
Overall, the US Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency More than $233 million cut from Connecticut, Delaware District of Columbia, MassachusettsMinnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The money is part of a $1 billion program where allocations are supposedly based on assessed risks, with states then giving the bulk of the money to police and fire departments.
The cuts were disclosed after a different federal judge ruled in a separate legal challenge that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to require states to cooperate on immigration enforcement actions to receive FEMA disaster funding.
In his 48-page decision, McElroy found that the federal government was evaluating states’ policing of federal immigration enforcement and whether to reduce federal funding for the Homeland Security Grant Program and others.
McElroy wrote, “Defendants’ decisions to cut funding for specific counterterrorism programs by specific round number amounts – including rounding off millions-place digits of the amount awarded – are what if not arbitrary and capricious. It requires neither a law degree nor a degree in mathematics to conclude that no plausible, rational formula could produce this result.”
The Trump-appointed judge then ordered the Department of Homeland Security to restore previously announced funding allocations to the plaintiff states.
McElroy wrote, “The defendants’ wanton abuse of their role in federal grant administration is particularly troubling given the fact that they are entrusted with the most serious duty: protecting our country and its citizens.” “While the intricacies of administrative law and the terms and conditions on federal grants may seem abstract to some, the funding at issue here supports vital counterterrorism and law enforcement programs.”
McElroy notably cited the recent Brown University attack, where a gunman killed two students and injured nine others, as an incident where a $1 billion federal program would be critical in responding to such a tragedy.
“Withholding mortgage funding for such programs based solely on the political whims of the defendants is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful,” the Rhode Island-based judge wrote in his decision issued a little more than a week after the Brown shooting.
Emails seeking comment were sent to DHS and FEMA.
“This victory ensures that the Trump Administration cannot punish states that refuse to help carry out its draconian immigration agenda, especially by denying them life-saving funding that helps prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement.