Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, as part of a coalition of 12 attorneys general and the governor of Pennsylvania, won her lawsuit to stop the Trump Administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the Administration’s political agenda.
“This victory ensures that the Trump Administration cannot punish states that refuse to help carry out its cruel immigration agenda, particularly by denying them lifesaving funding that helps prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies,” Campbell said. “I will continue to hold the federal government accountable when they try to play politics with the safety and security of our residents.”
On Sept. 27, without any notice or explanation, and four days before the end of the federal fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut funding to certain states with agencies or municipalities that were unwilling to divert law enforcement resources away from core public safety services to assist in enforcing federal immigration law. The Trump Administration then reallocated the funds to other states.
On the day the funding was cut, FEMA issued award notifications for its single largest grant program, the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), which allocates approximately $1 billion in funds annually for state and municipal efforts to prevent, prepare for and respond to acts of terrorism. FEMA granted only $250 million to 12 states that the Trump Administration deemed unwilling to comply with its immigration agenda. That allocation marked a 49% reduction from the nearly $500 million that FEMA had previously stated it would provide to these states. Massachusetts received a 31% reduction in funds, totaling nearly $7 million.
In the lawsuit, filed Sept. 29, Campbell and the coalition argued that the reallocation of funds was arbitrary and capricious and violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act. In its opinion, a U.S. District Court found that states’ policies pertaining to federal immigration enforcement were a factor in DHS’s decision to reallocate the funding. The court ordered DHS to amend the HSGP awards issued to the plaintiff states to reflect their previously announced funding allocations.
The court further held that other significant changes to emergency preparedness programs, also made at the last minute at the end of the federal fiscal year, were unlawful and set them aside. In those changes, DHS had cut the length of the grant awards from three years to one year. DHS had also required states, in order to receive emergency management funding, to certify their own populations as of Sept. 30, while excluding individuals who had been “removed from the State pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States.” The court held that these actions were also arbitrary and capricious.
Joining Campbell in filing the lawsuit were the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and the governor of Pennsylvania.
