SEATTLE, Wash. —A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from slashing federal homeland security funding to Washington and other states that refused to align with the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
The ruling comes just one day after Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging what they called politically motivated cuts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
PREVIOUS COVERAGE |Washington AG leads lawsuit against Trump admin over homeland security funding cuts
According to Brown’s office, on Saturday, DHS and FEMA significantly reduced allocations from the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) to several states, including Washington, California, and New York, without warning.
The cuts targeted jurisdictions that declined to divert local law enforcement resources to support federal immigration enforcement efforts. The administration then attempted to redistribute those funds to other states.
“There’s no legal basis for steering these dollars away from states for a purely political reason,” Brown said in a statement. “The need to protect our communities from possible terrorist attacks should be something we can all agree on.”
The court’s temporary restraining order halts the redistribution of funds and requires DHS to set the money aside while the case proceeds.
The HSGP distributes roughly $1 billion annually to state and local governments to help prevent and respond to acts of terrorism. According to the lawsuit, states involved in the legal challenge received only $226 million—down $233 million, or 51%, from earlier expectations.
Washington state was slated to lose approximately $2 million under the cuts, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Brown joined attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont in filing the lawsuit.A copy of the court’s temporary restraining order will be posted on the Washington Attorney General’s Officewebsite once it becomes available.
트위터 공유: 트럼프 자금 삭감 막아낸 판사