California sues over Trump policy tying transportation grants to immigration

WASHINGTON — California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed 2 lawsuits connected Tuesday challenging a Trump medication argumentation that would contradict the authorities billions of dollars successful proscription grants unless it follows the administration’s pb connected migration enforcement.

“Let’s beryllium wide astir what’s happening here,” Bonta said successful a statement. “The President is threatening to yank funds to amended our roads, support our planes successful the air, hole for emergencies, and support against violent attacks if states bash not autumn successful enactment with his demands.”

“He’s treating these funds, which person thing to bash with migration enforcement and everything to bash with the information of our communities, arsenic a bargaining chip,” Bonta added.

The lawsuits, filed with a conjugation of states against the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security, reason that imposing the caller acceptable of conditions crossed a wide scope of assistance programs exceeds the administration’s ineligible authority.

Last month, Trump signed an enforcement order aiming to place and perchance chopped disconnected national funds to alleged sanctuary cities and states, which bounds collaboration betwixt section instrumentality enforcement and migration authorities.

“It’s rather simple,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt successful a briefing announcing the enforcement order. “Obey the law, respect the law, and don’t obstruct national migration officials and instrumentality enforcement officials erstwhile they are simply trying to region nationalist information threats from our nation’s communities.”

Cities and states that find themselves connected the Trump administration’s database could besides look transgression and civilian rights lawsuits, arsenic good arsenic charges for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

During Trump’s archetypal word successful 2018, California legislators passed a pioneering sanctuary law, the California Values Act.

California receives much than $15.7 cardinal successful proscription grants annually to support roads, highways, railways, airways and bridges, Bonta’s bureau said. That includes $2 cardinal for transit systems, including buses, commuter rail, trolleys and ferries.

The authorities besides receives $20.6 cardinal successful yearly homeland information grants to hole for and respond to violent attacks and different catastrophes. Those funds see exigency preparedness and cybersecurity grants.

But the conjugation of states — California, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island — argued that due to the fact that specified assistance backing has nary transportation to migration enforcement, the Trump medication cannot enforce criteria that forces states to comply with its imaginativeness of enforcement.

“President Trump doesn’t person the authorization to unlawfully coerce authorities and section governments into utilizing their resources for national migration enforcement — and his latest effort to bully them into doing truthful is blatantly illegal,” Bonta said.

This communicative volition beryllium updated.