Judge Shoots Down DOT’s Threats to Tie Funding to Immigration Enforcement

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold Department of Transportation funding from states and municipalities that don’t cooperate with its immigration enforcement efforts, writing that such a decision “blatantly” violates the U.S Constitution.

“The Constitution demands the Court set aside this lawless behavior,” Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell, who was appointed to the bench in Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, wrote in a 32-page ruling.

“Should Congress have wished, it could have attempted to entice State cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement through lawful means, and it could have sought to empower federal agencies to assist it in doing so,” McConnell continued. “Here, however, Defendants have blatantly overstepped their statutory authority, violated the APA (Administrative Procedure Act,) and transgressed well-settled constitutional limitations on federal funding conditions.”

The DOT did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.

McConnell’s ruling comes after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in June said that he would cut funding from “rogue state actors” that do not cooperate with the White House’s immigration enforcement.

Though it is unclear whether any funding was actually withheld, 20 Democratic-run states in May sued the federal government over the move, arguing that the threats were an unconstitutional violation of Congress’ authority over spending.

McConnell sided with the 20 plaintiff states in June, issuing a preliminary injunction that barred the administration from seeking retribution against “the States and their governmental subdivisions” while the lawsuit works its way through the courts.

The policy, McConnell wrote in the injunction, “is arbitrary and capricious in its scope and lacks specificity in how the States are to cooperate on immigration enforcement in exchange for Congressionally appropriated transportation dollars — grant money that the States rely on to keep their residents safely and efficiently on the road, in the sky, and on the rails.”

Duffy in a post on X in June called McConnell’s ruling “judicial activism pure & simple” and said he will “continue to fight in the courts.”

“I directed states who want federal DOT money to comply with federal immigration laws. But, no surprise, an Obama-appointed judge has ruled that states can openly defy our federal immigration laws,” Duffy posted on X.

McConnell’s ruling on Tuesday declares DOT’s Immigration Enforcement Condition “unlawful and ordered vacated from all grant agreements administered by Defendants.”

“Defendants are permanently enjoined from implementing or enforcing the IEC against the States, or otherwise attempting to condition federal transportation funding on State cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement,” the ruling concluded.