Federal Courts and DHS Grants

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island, a Trump appointee, ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration unlawfully moved to reallocate hundreds of millions of dollars in Homeland Security Grant Program funds away from Democratic-led states and D.C. over their refusal to assist federal immigration enforcement, ordering DHS to restore the grants. The decision, which New York Attorney General Letitia James called a major win for New York and 10 other plaintiff states plus D.C., holds that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by tying counterterrorism and disaster-preparedness funding to cooperation with ICE, and sharply criticizes what McElroy called a "wanton abuse" of the department's grant authority; DHS says it will appeal.