A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from reducing homeland security grants to states that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The decision, issued on Monday by US district judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island, halts cuts totalling more than $230m in federal grants for Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia.
The grants are part of $1bn in annual funds allocated to states and local governments for counter-terrorism efforts. In a written ruling, Judge McElroy described the cuts as 'another example' of the administration tying state and local assistance to its immigration crackdown. She wrote that the 'wanton abuse' of grant administration was particularly troubling given the 'most solemn duty' of safeguarding the nation.
Judge McElroy specifically cited the mass shooting at Brown University, in which a gunman killed two people and injured nine, as evidence of how the federal money had been used to aid law enforcement. She said that holding such funding hostage for 'political whims' was 'unconscionable and unlawful'.
A coalition of 12 attorneys general from affected states, who sued over the cuts, welcomed the decision. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said the administration’s 'attempt to play politics with these resources was illegal and put our state at risk'. She called the ruling a 'significant win' in protecting residents from 'reckless funding cuts'.
The Department of Homeland Security has indicated that it will appeal against the decision, according to Axios.
