Federal Court Rules Against Trump Plan to Condition Federal Transportation Grants to States on Cooperation with Federal Deportation Efforts
Yesterday, in a lawsuit brought by twenty state courts, federal District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. ruled the Trump Administration violated the Constitution when it tried to deny federal transportation grants to states that refuse to help federal authorities detain and deport supposed illegal migrants. The court ruled the Department of Transportation acted illegally because Congress had not authorized it to impose any such conditions on transportation grants, and because immigration enforcement has no meaningful connection to the purpose of the grants:
Defendants’ conduct violates the [Administrative Procedure Act] because they acted outside of their statutory authority when they issued the Duffy Directive and imposed the IEC categorically across all U.S. DOT grants when Congress appropriated those funds for transportation purposes, not immigration enforcement purposes….. Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes….
These conditions violate the Spending Clause as well; the IEC is not at all reasonably related to the transportation funding program grants whose statutorily articulated purposes are for the maintenance and safety of roads, highways, bridges, and development of other transportation projects. The Government does not cite to any plausible connection between cooperating with ICE enforcemen
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