Judge Blocks Requiring State Cooperation with Immigration Enforcement to Get DOT Funds

Federal Chief District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. issued a preliminary injunction to block the Department of Transportation from withholding funds for “States and their governmental subdivisions” unless they cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

The injunction is in place while the case brought by 20 state Attorneys General from Democratically run states makes its way through court. Granting an injunction implies that a judge deems the parties requesting it are likely to succeed on the merits.

McConnell denied the DOT’s request that he stay his order. The DOT will almost certainly appeal. McConnell explicitly pointed out that his court will have jurisdiction to monitor compliance with the preliminary injunction.

In April, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy issued the “Duffy directive.” It requires states that receive transportation grants, which amounts to practically all states, to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement which is engaged in large-scale roundups and deportations. Any state which does not satisfy this new “Immigration Enforcement Condition” is stripped of DOT funding under the directive.

Transportation infrastructure and associated services are heavily supported by federal DOT funds, so the directive is coercive on an large scale. It bases access to appropriated funds from a department on conditions unrelated to that department.

McConnell wrote:

Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated [by Congress] for transportation purposes.

He added that the policy his order blocks

is arbitrary and capricious in its scope and lacks specificity in how the States are to cooperate on immigration enforcement in exchange for Congressionally appropriated transportation dollars grant money that the States rely on to keep their residents safely and efficiently on the road, in the sky, and on the rails.

Click here for a more thorough analysis of the ruling.