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Attorney General William Tong, with a coalition of 19 other attorneys general, today filed two separate lawsuits against the Trump administration for attempting to "coerce" states into following federal immigration law -- or as the coalition calls it "performing federal immigration enforcement duties" -- by threatening to withhold billions in federal funding for emergency services and infrastructure.
This comes only weeks after Trump's Executive Order on Protecting American Communities from Illegal Aliens which was issued on April 28th, 2025, in part to correct the failures of the prior administration which allowed millions of unchecked aliens to illegally enter the United States, enabling an invasion at the southern border.
The Executive Order pointed out that the "resulting public safety and national security risks are exacerbated by the presence of, and control of territory by, international cartels and other transnational criminal organizations along the southern border, as well as terrorists and other malign actors who intend to harm the United States and the American people."
Trump specifically detailed consequences for "sanctuary" jurisdictions, like Connecticut, including the suspension and/or termination of grants and contracts issued to those jurisdictions identified as sanctuaries under the Executive Order.
The Executive Order also prevents illegal immigrants from receiving Federal public benefits.
But Tong and the coalition of attorneys general want to keep federal funding and at the same time remain sanctuaries for illegals.
The coalition filed a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and a second lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy.
The coalition is outraged that new conditions that would require the states and state agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts or lose out on billions of federal dollars that states use for public safety and transportation infrastructure.
“The federal government needs to do its own job—lawfully—and stop this unconstitutional fixation on micromanaging sovereign state business. Immigration enforcement is a federal role. Plain and simple. You cannot coerce states into doing the federal government’s job by stealing our disaster relief and transportation funding. This is dumb and dangerous, and we’re fighting back,” said Attorney General Tong.
In February, Secretary Noem directed DHS and its sub-agencies, including FEMA, to cease federal funding to jurisdictions that do not assist the federal government in the enforcement of federal immigration law. In March, DHS amended the terms and conditions it places on federal funds to require recipients to certify that they will assist in enforcing federal immigration law.
Soon after Noem’s decision, DOT Secretary Duffy issued a letter to grant recipients informing them of his intent to require all state and local governments to assist in federal immigration enforcement as a condition of obtaining DOT funds. Those funds include grants for highway construction, public transportation maintenance, and competitive funds for airport and railway improvement.
In recent weeks, state grant applicants have seen similar immigration-enforcement language added to the terms and conditions governing grants administered by the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.
The coalition argues that the immigration conditions "exceed FEMA’s legal authority" and that the "safety and well-being of Americans could be at risk if states are forced to forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal emergency preparedness and response funds." Similarly, the coalition believes that imposing an immigration-enforcement condition on all federal transportation funds is also "beyond the agency’s legal authority."
Joining Attorney General Tong in filing the lawsuits are attorneys general from California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.
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