A federal judge in Rhode Island on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration effort to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency preparedness funds to blue states that have opposed his mass deportation campaign.
It was the second time in a week that a federal judge had blocked the Trump administration’s effort to withhold disaster preparedness funds.
Last Wednesday, a judge in the Federal District Court in Rhode Island ruled in favor of a coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia, most led by Democrats, that had sued for the release of billions of dollars in federal grants. President Trump has argued that the states had mounted a “lawless insurrection” by not complying with his demands on immigration enforcement.
Days after the court in Rhode Island ruled against Mr. Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides funding for disaster preparedness, informed 11 of those states and the District of Columbia that they would receive less than half of an expected $460 million in counterterrorism funds, according to a filing by the plaintiffs. New York and Illinois, states that Mr. Trump has repeatedly targeted over policy disagreements, had their grants cut by 79 percent and 69 percent, totaling over $100 million.
FEMA did not provide a specific reason for the cuts, but the plaintiffs argued in their filings that the reason was apparent: “The current administration is taking money from its enemies.” They quoted Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, who has argued that states that do not comply with Mr. Trump’s policies “should not receive a single dollar of the department’s money.”
Judge Mary S. McElroy ruled for the plaintiffs in a Tuesday afternoon hearing, approving a proposed temporary restraining order that would force the government to make the full grants available to the District of Columbia and the 11 states: Illinois, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington State.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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