The Trump administration is trying to force states to cooperate with immigration authorities as a condition of receiving disaster aid, prompting Democratic state attorneys general to file a lawsuit Tuesday.
A new administration policy requiring states to join immigration-enforcement actions is illegal and could deprive states that refuse the federal directive billions of dollars in disaster money, the lawsuit said.
The complaint asks a Rhode Island federal court to nullify the immigration requirements adopted by the Trump administration as part of its broad effort to identify and remove undocumented migrants.
The case is the latest lawsuit by Democratic state attorneys general aimed at preventing the Trump administration from withholding Federal Emergency Management Agency grants and aid. In April, a federal judge in Rhode Island sided with 23 attorneys general and ordered FEMA to release funding it was withholding.
