A group of 25 Democratic attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta are taking the Trump administration to court for imposing “unlawful” conditions on federal grants for disaster preparedness and response.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) have been placing stipulations on federal grants that amount to a “campaign of coercion” designed to force states to adopt the White House’s preferred voting and immigration policies says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island on Thursday.
Those requirements, which have been imposed on more than $740m in combined funding for disaster preparedness and counter-terrorism, include mandating states employ a federal system to verify the citizenship of all voters and conduct post-election audits.
The lawsuit also targets agencies’ attempt to withhold funds to states who do not agree to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in conducting raids and deportations – a mandate that a federal court struck down last year. And it calls out a new condition giving Fema the ability to cancel state grants if they are found to be out of alignment with the agency’s priorities.
“President Trump has little support for both his mass deportation agenda and his baseless claims of election fraud, so instead, he’s trying to bully state and local governments into adopting his preferred policies in exchange for much-needed funding,” Bonta said in a statement.
Reached for comment, a Fema spokesperson called the lawsuit “partisan pushback” against “commonsense measures” from “leftwing politicians”.
“Election security is national security, and protecting our critical infrastructure remains a top priority for the Trump Administration,” the spokesperson said. “These new requirements will preserve election integrity.”
Bonta and other Democratic attorneys general have previously filed two successful challenges over the same grant programs. In a ruling affirming the second of those lawsuits, a Trump-appointed judge wrote: “To hold hostage funding for programs like these based solely on what appear to be Defendants’ political whims is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful.”
The DHS and Fema were apparently “undeterred” by their previous losses, says the Thursday lawsuit.
“The administration has already lost similar fights in court, and we expect this latest unlawful attempt to fail as well,” Bonta said. “Our communities deserve better than to have essential resources caught up in political games.”
