A federal judge in Rhode Island on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of trying to “bully” states into accepting conditions that require them to cooperate on immigration enforcement actions to get disaster funding after he ruled earlier that those actions were unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge William Smith, who was appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, issued a summary judgment last month ruling that the Department of Homeland Security couldn't impose the conditions.
Despite the September ruling, a coalition of 20 state Democratic attorneys general argued the agency still attached the conditions to the grants along with language suggesting they would apply if the case was “stayed, vacated, or extinguished.”
