Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, alongside California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, has co-led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing lawsuits against the Trump administration. The legal action challenges immigration conditions imposed on federal funding intended for emergency services and infrastructure projects. These lawsuits were submitted to the United States District Court in Rhode Island.
The coalition's first lawsuit targets the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Secretary Kristi Noem, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A second lawsuit is directed at the Department of Transportation (DOT) and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy. Both agencies have enforced new conditions requiring states to support federal immigration enforcement or risk losing significant federal funding.
Attorney General Neronha expressed concern over what he described as "creeping authoritarianism," criticizing the administration for using American safety as leverage to undermine state rights. He stated that withholding funds designated by Congress for infrastructure and disaster preparedness puts public safety at risk.
According to the coalition, DHS Secretary Noem instructed her department in February to halt funding to jurisdictions not aiding federal immigration law enforcement. Subsequently, in March, DHS modified funding terms to require recipients' compliance with these enforcement efforts.
Similarly, DOT Secretary Duffy announced plans mandating state cooperation with immigration enforcement as a prerequisite for receiving transportation funds. This affects grants for highway construction and public transport maintenance among others.
State grant applicants have observed similar conditions being added across various federal agencies overseeing highway, railroad, and transit grants.
The lawsuits argue that these conditions exceed both DHS's and DOT’s legal authority and violate constitutional provisions since Congress had already allocated these funds without such stipulations. In Rhode Island alone, $45 million in emergency preparedness funds from 2024 are potentially jeopardized by these requirements.
Moreover, if DOT enforces this condition across all transportation-related grants — meant for critical projects like highway development — it could threaten up to $628 million in competitive grant awards along with additional Federal Highway Administration allocations crucial for projects such as Washington Bridge in Rhode Island.
Attorneys general from several other states including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon Washington Wisconsin Vermont joined Neronha Raoul Bonta Brown Platkin initiating litigation efforts defending against federally imposed immigration policies overreach