Judge stops Trump from blocking blue states’ terrorism prevention funding

(CN) — A multistate coalition has won a court order preventing the Trump administration from targeting Democrat-led states with hefty slashes to federal anti-terrorism funding.

The cash in question is the roughly $1 billion Homeland Security Grant Program, which funds state and municipal efforts to prevent and respond to acts of terrorism. Responding to blue states’ assertions that the Trump administration illegally halved their payments — while simultaneously bumping up allocations for red states — U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday that should restore the status quo.

“Defendants are enjoined from distributing, processing, returning to the U.S. Treasury, reprogramming, reallocating, or otherwise making unavailable by any means all fiscal year 2025 Homeland Security Grant Program funds appropriated by Congress,” the Donald Trump appointee wrote in a two-page order.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, part of the suing coalition, called the temporary block “an important win for New Yorkers and for every state that relies on those critical funds to stop dangerous threats.”

“The federal government cannot play politics with the safety of our communities and the hardworking law enforcement officers who protect them every day,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

McElroy’s ruling comes just two days after the states sued the department, accusing it of illegally giving preferential treatment to states in line with the president’s agenda and punishing those that defy it.

“Although DHS has for decades administered federal grant programs in a fair and evenhanded manner, the current administration is taking money from its enemies,” the plaintiffs claim in the 46-page lawsuit.

The states accuse Homeland Security of breaching a court order in a separate case, where a judge ruled that the Trump administration can’t withhold grants and disaster aid from states with so-called “sanctuary” laws.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, under direction from the president, implemented those new requirements earlier this year, tying those funds to states’ compliance with mass deportations — which the states claim is unconstitutional overreach in a May lawsuit.

Last week, U.S. District Judge William Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, agreed with the states in that lawsuit and barred the changes.

Despite that ruling, the states claim in their subsequent complaint that they were only awarded $226 million under the Homeland Security Grant Program, down from the $460 million they were previously promised. Additionally, their window to use the funds was shortened from three years to one, making it nearly impossible to actually use the money.

Meanwhile, some red states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota and Tennessee — enjoyed bumps in their disbursements, the suing coalition claims. North Carolina supposedly saw the most striking increase, getting awarded $21 million despite only being allocated $9 million.

“The explanation that can be gleaned from circumstantial evidence is that DHS set out to punish states with policies concerning law-enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement that DHS opposes. That is an impermissible factor under the statute at issue,” the plaintiffs write.

Meanwhile, Noem claimed in a statement on Monday that the agency “returned” nearly $3.5 billion to Americans by empowering local leaders to better prepare for emergencies themselves, rather than rely on federal grant money.

“The Biden administration used FEMA as its own personal piggy bank to fund far-left radical organizations, house criminal illegal aliens and support pseudo-science,” Noem said. “Recipients of grants will no longer be permitted to use federal funds to house illegal immigrants at luxury hotels, fund climate change pet projects or empower radical organizations with unseemly ties that don’t serve the interest of the American people.”

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