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(CN) — More than a dozen states slapped the Trump administration with two new lawsuits on Tuesday, accusing it of withholding funding for both emergency relief and transportation in retaliation for the states’ immigration policies.
The pair of lawsuits, both filed in Rhode Island federal court, are the latest of several dozen state challenges to the administration’s unprecedented cuts to federally approved funding for state aid.
In these cases, two coalitions of states claim that the executive branch is unlawfully using those cuts to strong-arm states into complying with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. And that threatens to upend the states’ emergency preparedness and vital transportation infrastructure, they claim.
“By hanging a halt in this critical funding over states like a sword of Damocles, defendants impose immense harm on states, forcing them to choose between readiness for disasters and emergencies, on one hand, and exercising their judgment about how to best use scarce resources to investigate and prosecute crimes on the other,” the states claim in a draft of one of the complaints, reviewed Tuesday by Courthouse News.
That lawsuit targets the Department of Homeland Security for what the states say are sweeping new requirements on federal grant programs that force states to reroute their own police resources to federal immigration enforcement — or risk losing billions of dollars in funding for disaster relief and emergency preparation.
The suing states, which include Illinois, California, New York, Rhode Island and more than a dozen others, point to the department’s new sets of “Standard Terms and Conditions” applicable to federal grants. They claim that, for the first time, their emergency relief grants are now contingent on them providing state aid to federal deportation efforts and ending any program that “benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration.”
“Defendants’ grant funding hostage scheme violates two key principles that underlie the American system of checks and balances: Agencies in the executive branch cannot act contrary to the authority conferred on them by Congress, and the federal government cannot use the spending power to coerce states into adopting its preferred policies,” the states argue.
They claim that the Trump administration has “ignored both principles” by imposing its own will on the congressionally approved aid, “bulldozing through the Constitution’s boundary between state and federal authority.”
The harm could be far-reaching, according to the states. New York alone claims that it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars that funded bomb squads, SWAT teams, hazmat units and emergency relief services that responded to Hurricane Sandy and the Covid-19 crisis.
The second lawsuit — which includes many of the same states as plaintiffs — takes aim at the Department of Transportation after it announced last month that it would cut off funding to any state that refuses to comply with Trump’s immigration agenda.
“On April 24, 2025, United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy issued a letter to all recipients of U.S. DOT funding announcing its policy, for the first time, of imposing an immigration enforcement condition on all U.S. DOT funding,” the states claim in a draft of the complaint.
Much like the emergency relief funding, the states say that the transportation funding was already approved by Congress with no immigration conditions, making Duffy’s directive unlawful.
Several transportation programs are at risk of losing significant funding, the states claim, which could scale back vital upkeep and improvement projects for highways, public transit and air travel.
“More cars, planes, and trains will crash, and more people will die as a result, if defendants cut off federal funding to plaintiff states,” the states argue.
A plaintiff in this lawsuit, too, New York stands to lose $5 billion annually in Department of Transportation funding, including $2.8 billion for highways and $2.3 billion for public transportation.
“Once again, the administration is attempting to seize Congress’ power of the purse — this time at the expense of immigrant communities and vital infrastructure projects,” New York Attorney General Leticia James said in a statement. “DOT’s blatant overreach threatens to divert critical resources away from public safety and undermine projects that keep our communities connected and safe.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday that the lawsuits were a response to the “blatantly illegal” threats from Trump to flex federal power over the states.
“He’s treating these funds, which have nothing to do with immigration enforcement and everything to do with the safety of our communities, as a bargaining chip,” Bonta said in a statement.
In a statement to Courthouse News, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said:
“No funding has been withheld. These 20 states are challenging the terms of their grant agreements because their officials want to continue breaking federal law and putting the needs of illegal aliens above their own citizens. Under the leadership of President Trump, what my department has done is remind grant recipients that by accepting federal funds, they are required to adhere to federal laws.”
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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