BOSTON — The Trump administration can’t block federal disaster relief funds for Massachusetts and other states for refusing to cooperate with immigration crackdowns, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court judge William E. Smith in Rhode Island sided with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 22 other Democrats who sued to block a Homeland Security policy tying Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funding to a state’s willingness to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Smith granted the AGs’ request for a permanent injunction on the conditions for emergency preparedness funding by FEMA, calling the policy “arbitrary and capricious, and thus invalid.”
“Plaintiff States stand to suffer irreparable harm; the effect of the loss of emergency and disaster funds cannot be recovered later, and the downstream effect on disaster response and public safety are real and not compensable,” Smith wrote in the 45-page ruling.
Campbell, who filed the initial complaint, welcomed Wednesday’s ruling and said it signals that the Trump administration “cannot bully states into taking part in their fear-driven, inhumane immigration agenda by withholding congressionally appropriated funds.”
“I applaud the court’s decision, which will protect billions of dollars to help states ensure public safety and prepare for, protect against, and respond to catastrophic natural disasters,” the Democrat said.
In the lawsuit, the AGs argued the policy was unconstitutional and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that governs the process by which federal agencies issue new regulations.
But lawyers for the Department of Justice countered that the challenge was moot because Homeland Security officials had already opted to exclude most of the 18 FEMA programs from having to comply with immigration policy to qualify for funding.
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement in response to Wednesday’s ruling. “No lawsuit, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”
The push to withhold federal grants is similar to a policy implemented by the first Trump administration, which withheld access to a federal public safety grant program from local governments that didn’t cooperate with immigration authorities. That effort was blocked by a series of federal court rulings.
Massachusetts doesn’t have a law declaring itself a sanctuary state. In 2017, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that state law doesn’t give local police the authority to detain people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally unless that person faces criminal charges. Boston was recently listed by the Department of Justice as a “sanctuary” city.
In June, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Department of Transportation from enforcing a directive withholding federal grants to states with “sanctuary” policies that limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation operations.
In the 10-page ruling, McConnell said the federal government failed to show “any plausible connection between cooperating with ICE enforcement and the congressionally approved purposes of the Department of Transportation.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.