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Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion Over Ille­gal Immi­gra­tion Con­di­tions

Preceding Event:

On April 18, 2025, the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty issued new sets of ‘Stan­dard Terms and Con­di­tions applic­a­ble to all fed­er­al awards. “The 2025 Terms and Con­di­tions include, for the first time, new require­ments com­pelling States to divert their law enforce­ment resources away from core pub­lic safe­ty mis­sions to fed­er­al civ­il immi­gra­tion enforce­ment and to stop oper­at­ing any pro­gram that ‘ben­e­fits ille­gal immi­grants or incen­tivizes ille­gal immi­gra­tion’,” the law­suit said.

General Overview:

The suit is aimed at the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty, the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (FEMA), The U.S. Coast Guard and the heads of the orga­ni­za­tions. “Defen­dants assert a sweep­ing enti­tle­ment to use state law enforce­ment offi­cers for fed­er­al immi­gra­tion enforce­ment, con­tra­ven­ing the basic prin­ci­ple that States ‘remain inde­pen­dent and autonomous with­in their prop­er sphere of author­i­ty’,” the law­suit said.
This is an exec­u­tive pow­er issue, “…agen­cies in the Exec­u­tive Branch can­not act con­trary to the author­i­ty con­ferred on them by Con­gress, and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment can­not use the spend­ing pow­er to coerce States into adopt­ing its pre­ferred poli­cies,” the law­suit said.

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the press release, “Since 2021, Con­necti­cut has received more than $1.2 bil­lion from FEMA to pre­vent, pro­tect against and respond to flood­ing and oth­er nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, ter­ror­ism, mass casu­al­ty events, and oth­er cat­a­stro­phes. These con­di­tions will also dam­age the care­ful­ly built trust between law enforce­ment and immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties that is crit­i­cal to pro­mot­ing pub­lic safe­ty.”

Date of filing:

May 13, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-00206

Case title:

State of Illi­nois et al v. Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency et al

Plaintiffs: 20 states

• STATE OF ILLINOIS;
• STATE OF CALIFORNIA;
• STATE OF NEW JERSEY;
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND;
• STATE OF COLORADO;
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT;
• STATE OF DELAWARE;
• STATE OF HAWAIʻI;
• STATE OF MAINE;
• STATE OF MARYLAND;
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS;
• PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN;
• STATE OF MINNESOTA;
• STATE OF NEVADA;
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO;
• STATE OF NEW YORK;
• STATE OF OREGON;
• STATE OF VERMONT;
• STATE OF WASHINGTON;
• STATE OF WISCONSIN

Defendants:

• FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY;
• UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY;
• UNITED STATES COAST GUARD;
• DAVID RICHARDSON, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Senior Offi­cial Per­form­ing the Duties of the Admin­is­tra­tor of the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency;
• KRISTI NOEM, in her offi­cial capac­i­ty as Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty;
• KEVIN E. LUNDAY, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Act­ing Com­man­dant of the U.S. Coast Guard

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

CLOSED — Ter­mi­nat­ed on Sept. 24, 2025
Judg­ment in favor of plain­tiffs

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