A federal judge in Rhode Island has accused the Trump administration of defying its order prohibiting officials from withholding Federal Emergency Management Agency funds from jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with Trump's immigration policies.
U.S. District Judge William Smith in Rhode Island initially blocked the administration from enforcing this policy in September, ruling that it ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act.
But in a new scathing opinion handed down on Tuesday, Smith said the administration has basically not changed its policy in any way, and is still telling areas applying for disaster relief they have to follow the policy "conditionally."
"Despite the Court’s order, Defendants have now inserted the contested conditions into Plaintiff States’ award letters for DHS grants, along with statements promising that '[i]f the injunction is stayed, vacated, or extinguished, the [contested conditions] will immediately become effective,'" wrote Smith.
This is not acceptable, he wrote, because it's essentially just telling states and cities that the court order isn't worth regarding.
"In effect, Defendants have done precisely what the Memorandum and Order forbids, which is requiring Plaintiff States to agree to assist in federal immigration enforcement or else forgo the award of DHS grants," wrote Smith. "The fig leaf conditional nature of the requirement makes little difference. No matter how confident Defendants may be of their chances on appeal, at present, the contested conditions are unlawful. Plaintiff States therefore have a right to accept the awards without regard to the contested conditions."
"Defendants’ new condition is not a good faith effort to comply with the order; it is a ham-handed attempt to bully the states into making promises they have no obligation to make at the risk of losing critical disaster and other funding already appropriated by Congress," Smith wrote.
