Judge Rebukes ‘Ham-Handed’ Trump Admin for Defying FEMA Order in Scathing Ruling

A federal judge accused the Trump administration of defying a court order prohibiting the withholding of disaster relief funding to pressure states into helping with federal immigration enforcement.

In a sharply worded ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William E. Smith said the administration “has done precisely what the Memorandum and Order forbids,” by conditioning Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FEMA grants on states’ cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

“The fig leaf conditional nature of the requirement makes little difference,” Smith wrote. “No matter how confident Defendants may be of their chances on appeal, at present, the contested conditions are unlawful.”

He added that the administration’s “new condition is not a good faith effort to comply with the order; it is a ham-handed attempt to bully the states into making promises they have no obligation to make at the risk of losing critical disaster and other funding already appropriated by Congress.”

Smith’s rebuke follows his September decision striking down the same policy as “arbitrary and capricious and unconstitutional.” That earlier ruling barred FEMA from withholding billions in emergency management funds from so-called “sanctuary states.”

The lawsuit, brought by a coalition of 20 states, argued that the administration’s demands threatened funding for programs vital to disaster response, cybersecurity, and public safety.