The U.S. Department of Transportation is illegally threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation funding to states that don't "cooperate" with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, a coalition of state attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, said on Tuesday as it sued the administration in federal court.
Conditioning transportation funding on immigration violates the constitutional separation of powers, according to the suit, which was filed by James on Tuesday in federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island with the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and Vermont. (Wisconsin and Nevada are the only states on that list that President Trump carried in the 2024 election.)
“The administration is attempting to seize Congress’s power of the purse — this time at the expense of immigrant communities and vital infrastructure projects,” James said in a statement. “DOT’s blatant overreach threatens to divert critical resources away from public safety and undermine projects that keep our communities connected and safe. We won’t allow the federal government to hold essential funding hostage to advance a political agenda.”
The suit by the attorneys general is rooted in an April 24 announcement by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that DOT would cut off funding to any state "over a failure to cooperate on federal immigration enforcement efforts or for maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion programs," Reuters reported. The suit argues that the federal government is trying to "strong-arm" states by "categorically and unlawfully imposing the same federal immigration enforcement condition across all of them."
Duffy's threat, if carried out, threatens essential infrastructure projects nationwide, the suit argues. The federal DOT doles out more than $100 billion per year on a diverse array of vital concerns, including road and bridge maintenance, public transit systems, rail safety and even the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program — the last of which is of particular concern right now given the ongoing problems at Newark Airport.
"Without these funds, states will have to scale back or end several critical programs and projects," James's office said in a statement. "Without these funds, more cars, planes, and trains will crash as vital safety projects are halted or delayed. ... All of this funding is congressionally allocated, with no statutory immigration enforcement conditions attached."
But the Trump administration has shown a desire to issue funds with strings attached. Beyond Duffy's crackdown on "woke" states, he also threatened last month that he would withhold federal funds for unspecified highway projects in Manhattan, and eventually the entire state of New York, if Gov. Hochul does not turn off the congestion pricing cameras by May 21.
And early in his four-month tenure, Duffy said he would decide on federal grants to reward states with high birth and marriage rates.
The U.S. DOT did not respond to a question from Streetsblog, but Duffy previously denied that federal transportation grants had any other string attached beyond the obvious one.
"If you receive government grants, you must follow federal laws," Duffy said the April 24 announcement. "Enforce our immigration rules, end discriminatory DEI policies, and protect free speech."
But the attorneys general saw it differently. In a statement, the group said that Duffy is presenting states with "an impossible choice: Either states forego the billions of dollars in congressionally allocated funds ... or they undermine their law-enforcement efforts by diverting resources to enforce federal immigration law."
If safety is Duffy's goal, it's worth noting that immigrants are less likely to report crimes if they fear local authorities may turn them over to federal immigration agents," the attorneys general said in a statement.
New York receives more than $5 billion annually in DOT funding, including $2.8 billion in federal highway funds, $2.3 billion in public transit funding, $215 million in rail improvement funding and $8.7 million in airport improvement funding.
The state is also relying on billions for the next MTA capital plan. Duffy recently left the state out of a release of funds of previously approved grants, Streetsblog reported.
Read the full suit here. This is a breaking story and will be updated.
