CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 20 attorneys general, secured a preliminary injunction in an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration for attempting to illegally coerce their states into sweeping immigration enforcement by threatening to withhold billions in infrastructure funding.
“States rely on billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to keep our residents safe as they travel our roads, railways and the skies,” Raoul said. “This critical funding has nothing to do with immigration, and the administration’s attempt to hold it hostage unless states agree to do the federal government’s job of civil immigration enforcement is unconstitutional and outrageous. I am pleased with the court’s order and am committed to using all tools at our disposal to fight the Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to play politics with Americans’ lives.”
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The injunction, issued by Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, prevents the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) from imposing sweeping conditions that would require the states and state agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts or lose out on billions of federal dollars that states use to protect public safety and transportation infrastructure.
In their lawsuit against the DOT, Raoul and the coalition point out that imposing an immigration-enforcement condition on all federal transportation funds, which Congress appropriated to support critical infrastructure projects, is beyond the agency’s legal authority. The coalition states rely upon DOT money to fund highway development and airport safety projects, to prevent injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents, and to protect against train collisions. Last year, Illinois was awarded more than $2 billion in DOT grant money, which is used to maintain the National Highway System, state and local roads and bridges, bike paths, transit facilities, public ports, and airports. Raoul and the attorneys general contend that withholding the federal funding will damage public infrastructure across the country and will undermine public trust and cooperation in criminal investigations.
Attorney General Raoul is leading the lawsuit along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. They were joined in filing it by attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
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