DOT ‘Accepted Defeat’ in Fight to Tie Funds to Immigration: California AG

The Department of Transportation on Tuesday dropped its appeal of a California court decision that blocked the Trump administration from withholding transportation funding to states that limit cooperation between local officials and immigration agents.

“I am pleased that the Trump Administration has accepted defeat and agreed to drop its appeal of this decision,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led 21 other states in challenging DOT funding guideline, said in a statement posted to social media.

The lawsuit, filed by 21 states in May, came in response to an April DOT letter that threatened to withhold billions in transportation funding from states that fail to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Following the April letter, DOT went on to withhold $40 million from California after it refused to enforce English-language requirements for truckers at the department’s request.

Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell wrote in a November ruling that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had “blatantly overstepped” his authority in attempting to link infrastructure funding to immigration enforcement.

“The Constitution demands the Court set aside this lawless behavior,” McConnell wrote.

The Trump administration appealed McConnell’s ruling, which was followed by a similar ruling from a D.C. federal appeals court in subsequent weeks that found the administration failed to provide adequate reasoning behind its decision to pull trucking licenses from refugees and asylum seekers. Additionally, the panel of judges found the evidence provided by the Trump administration contradicted one of the government’s main claims because it showed the immigrants targeted by the new rule have lower fatal accident rates than other drivers.

“The court has rolled us back and said, ‘Well, we’re not quite sure this is an emergency. We want to see more data.’ And I’m like, ‘Watch any show on television, and you’ll see the risk to the American people,’” Duffy said in response to the D.C. appeals court ruling. “People are dying.”

The department last week also canceled $160 million in highway funding for California after the state missed a deadline to cancel 17,000 licenses issued to refugees and asylum seekers. Similar threats to claw back funding have been made against North Carolina.

DOT did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will restore the canceled funding.