25 States Sue After Trump Admin Ties Disaster Funds to Election, Immigration Rules
A coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia has filed a federal lawsuit challenging new Trump administration requirements that tie billions of dollars in homeland security and disaster preparedness funding to compliance with federal election and immigration policies.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Rhode Island, names the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as defendants and seeks to block the new conditions before states lose access to grant funding.
The plaintiffs argue DHS and FEMA exceeded their legal authority by imposing new conditions on grants that Congress appropriated for emergency preparedness, counterterrorism efforts, and disaster response.
According to the complaint, the agencies violated both the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause by requiring states to adopt policies unrelated to the purposes of the grant programs, Courthouse News reported.
The states argue the grants were intended for emergency preparedness and disaster response, not to require changes to state election systems or immigration policies, and accuse the administration of using federal funding as leverage to enforce its priorities.
At the center of the dispute is FEMA’s Homeland Security Grant Program, which distributes funding to support first responders, bomb squads, cybersecurity programs, and disaster preparedness and security for houses of worship.
Under the updated requirements, states must verify the citizenship of registered voters using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, transition voting systems to equipment capable of accepting hand-marked paper ballots, conduct manual post-election audits, reconcile ballots, verify the citizenship of registered voters through the federal SAVE database, and confirm the citizenship of election workers.
The lawsuit states that at least 20 percent of Homeland Security Grant Program awards may be withheld until states demonstrate compliance with the new election requirements.
The complaint also challenges immigration-related conditions requiring grant recipients to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
According to the filing, DHS now requires states and local governments receiving certain grants to assist with immigration enforcement activities, provide information regarding detainees’ immigration status, and refrain from publicizing federal immigration operations.
The lawsuit further objects to new FEMA provisions allowing the agency to terminate grants if they no longer advance the “national interest” or for the agency’s convenience, arguing Congress did not authorize such broad discretion.
The coalition argues the new conditions could jeopardize billions of dollars in emergency preparedness funding.
According to the lawsuit, FEMA could immediately withhold about $148 million from the plaintiff states through the 20 percent restriction alone, while broader grant termination authority could place substantially more funding at risk, CBS News reported.
FEMA defended the policy changes, saying the requirements are intended to strengthen election security.
In a statement, a FEMA spokesperson said, “Election security is national security,” and argued that states must take “critical, common-sense steps” to protect elections before receiving their full Homeland Security Grant Program awards.
The agency described the lawsuit as expected opposition from Democratic-led states to measures it says are designed to safeguard election integrity. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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