Judge blocks Trump plan to tie states' transportation funds to immigration enforcement

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.

Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that the Transportation Department lacked authority to require the states to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain transportation funding and that the condition violated the Constitution.

McConnell said the administration provided no plausible connection between cooperating with immigration enforcement and the purposes Congress intended for the funding, which is to support highways, bridges and other transportation projects.

“Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes,” McConnell wrote.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction preventing such a condition from being enforced against the 20 states that sued along with their government subdivisions, like cities.