Trump barred from using transit funds to force states’ compliance with ICE

(CN) — The Trump administration on Thursday was yet again found to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution, this time being scrutinized by a federal judge for trying to tie federal transportation funding to states’ compliance with mass deportations.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction on behalf of 20 states, who sued the Department of Transportation and its secretary Sean Duffy in May for threatening to cut funds to states who refuse to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In doing so, Duffy’s actions violated the Constitution, McConnell ruled Thursday.

“Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes,” the Barack Obama appointee in Rhode Island wrote in a 10-page ruling.

The administration’s goals were outlined in an April memo sent to recipients of Transportation Department Transportation grants. The letter, penned by Duffy, called on states to “comply fully” with federal laws — which includes “enforcing controls on illegal immigration” — or risk losing funding for critical transportation infrastructure that, in many cases, was already approved by Congress.

“Congress appropriated those funds for transportation purposes, not immigration enforcement purposes,” McConnell said in his decision.

The judge criticized Duffy’s conditions as “arbitrary and capricious in its scope,” while also lacking “specificity in how the states are to cooperate on immigration enforcement in exchange for congressionally appropriated transportation dollars.”

Allowing this behavior would be a slippery slope, McConnell said, as it would effectively allow the executive branch to tie any federal funding it wishes to conditions of its choosing, even if those condition have no connection to the department’s purpose.

And the immigration condition puts the states in a position of “relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers,” who may be called upon to assist federal deportation efforts pursuant to Duffy’s letter, the judge said.

“Such is not how the three equal branches of government are allowed to operate under our Constitution,” McConnell wrote.

The judge found that the states sufficiently outlined the harm they could face without an order in their favor, including the possibility of losing trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities, along with possibly affecting ongoing transportation projects.

Under McConnell’s order, the Department of Transportation is indefinitely barred from withholding funding to states based on their compliance with federal immigration enforcement.

A department spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

The suing states, which include Illinois, California, New York and more than a dozen others, filed their lawsuit against Duffy on May 13.

It is one of two related complaints filed that day in Rhode Island by Democratic states. The other lawsuit targets the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, which the states claim are threatening to cut funding as punishment for not assisting with the deportation efforts.

Such cuts could upend states’ emergency preparedness. New York alone claims that it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars that funds bomb squads, SWAT teams, hazmat units and emergency relief services that responded to Hurricane Sandy and the Covid-19 crisis.

That case’s judge, the George W. Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge William Smith, is yet to rule on a proposed injunction.

Thursday’s order is the latest in what’s become a laundry list of injunctions against the Trump administration, which continues to stretch the legal limits of checks and balances.

Federal judges around the country have lambasted the administration for deporting immigrants to third-party countries without due process, overstepping Congress in its bid to downsize the federal government and exercising unprecedented control over private educational institutions.

Follow @Uebey Follow @uebey.bsky.social