Press Statement  AG Campbell Secures Victory Blocking Illegal Conditions On Transportation Grant Funding

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today secured a permanent injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual U.S. Department of Transportation grants. The final ruling follows multistate litigation and a preliminary injunction. In issuing a permanent injunction, the Court found that the Trump Administration has “blatantly overstepped their statutory authority, violated the APA, and transgressed well-settled constitutional limitations on federal funding conditions. The Constitution demands the Court set aside this lawless behavior.” 

“Today, the Court made clear that the Trump Administration’s threats to withhold federal funding appropriated by Congress, as a way to bully states into aiding and abetting its inhumane immigration policies, is unconstitutional and unlawful,” said AG Campbell. “This victory protects more than a billion dollars in funding to support critical transportation infrastructure projects that strengthen our communities and promote public safety across the Commonwealth.” 

This year alone, Massachusetts anticipates receiving over $1.6 billion in grant funding from the Department of Transportation to support and maintain the roads, highways, railways, airways, and bridges that connect our communities and carry our residents to their workplaces and their homes. This includes funding to maintain and build highways. It also includes funding for transit systems in urban and rural communities across the state — including buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys, and ferries. Neither the purpose of these grants, nor their grant criteria, are in any way connected to immigration enforcement.  

A copy of the Court’s decision is available here.