Twenty states and Washington, DC, sued the Trump administration on Monday, alleging that it is improperly withholding hundreds of millions of dollars meant to help victims of crimes in order to force states into cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The states, all of which have Democratic attorneys general, are asking federal judge to strike down the conditions the Justice Department has established to receive the grant money, which are used to help crime victims with things like medical bills, funeral costs, counseling, emergency shelter, crisis hotlines and legal support.
If the threats came to fruition, the states allege, states would be forced to choose between fully cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, or having to scale back or shut down those programs.
“This brazen attempt to use funding that supports our most vulnerable residents to strong-arm California and states nationwide into doing the federal government’s job for it, is blatantly beyond the power of the president,” California Attorney General Rob Bonda said in a statement.
The demand is the latest in a series of battles between the administration and individual states over Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
Trump and his Justice Department have prioritized their work to expel migrants who are here illegally and to dismantle state and local-level protections, often referred to as sanctuary policies.
Attorney General Pam Bondi published a list of places that have sanctuary policies, which includes 12 states and Washington, DC, 4 counties, and 18 cities. The department has also filed several lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions in an effort to push them into complying with immigration enforcement, including suits against Illinois and New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
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