Judge blocks Trump plan to tie states' transportation funds to immigration enforcement

A national justice connected Thursday blocked President Donald Trump‘s medication from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with migration enforcement successful bid to person billions of dollars successful proscription assistance funding.

Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell successful Providence, Rhode Island ruled that the U.S. Department of Transportation lacked authorization to necessitate the states to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get proscription backing and that the information violated the U.S. Constitution.

McConnell said the medication provided nary plausible transportation betwixt cooperating with migration enforcement and the purposes Congress intended for the funding, which is to enactment highways, bridges and different proscription projects.

“Congress did not authorize oregon assistance authorization to the Secretary of Transportation to enforce migration enforcement conditions connected national dollars specifically appropriated for proscription purposes,” McConnell wrote.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction preventing specified a information from being enforced against the 20 states that sued on with their authorities subdivisions, similar cities.

The Trump medication did not respond to a petition for comment. It has argued the argumentation was wrong the department’s discretion.

The ruling came successful a suit filed by a radical of Democratic authorities attorneys wide who argued the medication was seeking to unlawfully clasp national funds hostage to coerce them into adhering to the Republican president’s hardline migration agenda.

They sued aft U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy connected April 24 notified states they could suffer proscription backing if they bash not cooperate with the enforcement of national law, including with ICE successful its efforts to enforce migration law.

Since returning to bureau connected January 20, Trump has signed respective enforcement orders that person called for cutting disconnected national backing to alleged sanctuary jurisdictions that bash not cooperate with ICE, arsenic his medication has moved to behaviour wide deportations.

Sanctuary jurisdictions mostly person laws and policies that bounds oregon forestall section instrumentality enforcement from assisting national officers with civilian migration arrests.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, successful a statement, hailed McConnell’s ruling, saying Trump had been “treating these funds — funds that spell toward improving our roads and keeping our planes successful the aerial — arsenic a bargaining chip.”

The 20 states are separately pursuing a akin lawsuit besides successful Rhode Island, challenging caller migration enforcement conditions the Homeland Security Department imposed connected assistance programs.