US court rules Trump violated order by placing conditions on FEMA grants

"A judge has called on the Trump administration to revise its grant requirements by next week, nixing immigration demands. A federal judge in the United States has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump has violated a previous court order by implementing a nearly identical policy that again made state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement a condition for receiving grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)."

"After Smith's initial ruling, the administration issued new grant award documents to the states with nearly identical immigration enforcement conditions but with a clause saying they would only become effective if Smith's ruling was stayed or overturned. Smith said the fig leaf conditional nature of the requirement makes little difference as the administration was again unlawfully forcing the states to agree to assist in federal immigration enforcement or else forgo millions of dollars in funding."

District Judge William Smith in Providence, Rhode Island found that the Department of Homeland Security violated a prior court order by reintroducing immigration-related conditions for FEMA emergency preparedness grants. The administration issued new grant award documents containing nearly identical immigration enforcement requirements with a clause making them effective only if Smith's ruling were stayed or overturned. Twenty Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia had argued the original restrictions coerced them into assisting federal immigration enforcement. Smith ruled the conditional language amounted to coercion, described the move as an attempt to bully states, and blocked the new conditions, ordering revision of the grant requirements.

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