WASHINGTON — California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed two lawsuits on Tuesday difficult a Trump administration coverage that will deny the state billions of {dollars} in transportation grants until it follows the administration’s lead on immigration enforcement.
“Let’s be clear about what’s taking place right here,” Bonta stated in a press release. “The President is threatening to yank funds to enhance our roads, hold our planes within the air, put together for emergencies, and shield in opposition to terrorist assaults if states don’t fall in keeping with his calls for.”
“He’s treating these funds, which don’t have anything to do with immigration enforcement and every little thing to do with the protection of our communities, as a bargaining chip,” Bonta added.
The lawsuits, filed with a coalition of states in opposition to the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Safety, argue that imposing the brand new set of situations throughout a broad vary of grant packages exceeds the administration’s authorized authority.
Final month, Trump signed an govt order aiming to determine and presumably minimize off federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities and states, which restrict collaboration between native regulation enforcement and immigration authorities.
“It’s fairly easy,” stated White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a briefing asserting the chief order. “Obey the regulation, respect the regulation, and don’t impede federal immigration officers and regulation enforcement officers when they’re merely making an attempt to take away public security threats from our nation’s communities.”
Cities and states that discover themselves on the Trump administration’s listing may additionally face prison and civil rights lawsuits, in addition to fees for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Throughout Trump’s first time period in 2018, California legislators handed a pioneering sanctuary regulation, the California Values Act.
California receives greater than $15.7 billion in transportation grants yearly to take care of roads, highways, railways, airways and bridges, Bonta’s workplace stated. That features $2 billion for transit methods, together with buses, commuter rail, trolleys and ferries.
The state additionally receives $20.6 billion in yearly homeland safety grants to arrange for and reply to terrorist assaults and different catastrophes. These funds embody emergency preparedness and cybersecurity grants.
However the coalition of states — California, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island — argued that as a result of such grant funding has no connection to immigration enforcement, the Trump administration can’t impose standards that forces states to adjust to its imaginative and prescient of enforcement.
“President Trump doesn’t have the authority to unlawfully coerce state and native governments into utilizing their assets for federal immigration enforcement — and his newest try and bully them into doing so is blatantly unlawful,” Bonta stated.
This story will probably be up to date.
