Attorney General Neronha, coalition win permanent injunction against Trump Administration for unlawful conditions on critical emergency services funding

Published on Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today issued the following statement after a Rhode Island District Court Judge granted the States’ motion for summary judgement, issuing a permanent injunction against the Trump Administration’s attempts to illegally impose immigration conditions on billions of federal dollars appropriated by Congress to support critical emergency services.

“Today is an important win for the rule of law and reaffirms that the President may not pick and choose which laws he and his Administration obey,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Since January, our coalition of Democratic attorneys general has achieved great success in blunting the harmful and unlawful actions of this Administration, mostly through preliminary injunctions, where the Court temporarily halts the policy in question while the case plays out in the Courts. That said, today’s permanent injunction by Judge Smith says, in no uncertain terms, that this Administration may not illegally impose immigration conditions on congressionally allocated federal funding for emergency services like disaster relief and flood mitigation. Case closed.

“These cases can feel long and daunting, and we still have a long road ahead of us, to be sure. But today’s decision reminds us that this President cannot impose his will where he does not have the lawful power to do so. And while he may continue to try, we will continue to fight.” 

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