Attorney General Neronha co-leads coalition suing Trump Administration over illegal conditions placed on billions in federal funding
Published on Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, co-leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general, today filed two separate lawsuits against the Trump administration for illegally imposing immigration conditions on billions of federal dollars appropriated by Congress to support critical emergency services and infrastructure projects. The lawsuits were filed in United States District Court in Rhode Island.
Attorney General Neronha and the coalition filed one lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The coalition filed a second lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy. Each agency has imposed sweeping new conditions that would require the states and state agencies to assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts or lose out on billions of federal dollars that states use to protect public safety and transportation infrastructure.
“We are experiencing creeping authoritarianism in this country, and as a people we must continue to resist,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Using the safety of Americans as collateral, the Trump Administration is once again illegally subverting the Congress, bullying the states to relinquish their right, ensured by the Constitution, to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents. By threatening to withhold these congressionally allocated funds, used for projects like fixing highways and preparing for natural disasters, the President is willing to put our collective safety at risk.”
The coalition explains that Congress has established dozens of federal grant programs administered by DHS and DOT, the funding from which benefits projects that range from disaster relief and flood mitigation to railroad, bridge, and airport construction.
In February, Secretary Noem directed DHS and its sub-agencies, including FEMA, to cease federal funding to jurisdictions that do not assist the federal government in the enforcement of federal immigration law. In March, DHS amended the terms and conditions it places on federal funds to require recipients to certify that they will assist in enforcing federal immigration law.
Soon after Noem’s decision, DOT Secretary Duffy issued a letter to grant recipients informing them of his intent to require all state and local governments to assist in federal immigration enforcement as a condition of obtaining DOT funds. Those funds include grants for highway construction, public transportation maintenance, and competitive funds for airport and railway improvement.
In recent weeks, state grant applicants have seen similar immigration-enforcement language added to the terms and conditions governing grants administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Railroad Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration.
In their lawsuit against DHS, the coalition points out that the immigration conditions exceed DHS’s legal authority. The coalition further explains that the conditions are unconstitutional because Congress appropriated billions of federal dollars to help states prepare for, protect against, respond to and recover from catastrophic disasters. The safety and well-being of Rhode Islanders could be at risk if Rhode Island is forced to forfeit federal emergency preparedness and response funds, which totaled more than $45 million in 2024 alone.
In their lawsuit against the DOT, the coalition points out that imposing an immigration-enforcement condition on all federal transportation funds, which Congress appropriated to support critical infrastructure projects, is beyond the agency’s legal authority. The coalition states rely upon DOT money to fund highway development and airport safety projects, to prevent injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents, and to protect against train collisions. If the Administration withholds these federal funds, up to $628 million in competitive federal grant awards and hundreds of millions more in FHWA funding allocations – including funding for the Washington Bridge project – are at risk in Rhode Island.
Joining Attorneys General Neronha, Raoul, Bonta, Brown, and Platkin in filing the lawsuits are attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and Vermont.
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