The Balance of Power

Immigration Conditions Placed on DOT Funding


Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion Over Ille­gal Immi­gra­tion Con­di­tions

Preceding Event:

Accord­ing to the law­suit, “On April 24, 2025, Unit­ed States Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion Sean Duffy issued a let­ter (the ‘Duffy Direc­tive’) to all recip­i­ents of U.S. DOT fund­ing announc­ing its pol­i­cy, for the first time, of impos­ing an immi­gra­tion enforce­ment con­di­tion on all U.S. DOT fund­ing. The Let­ter states that all U.S. DOT fund­ing recip­i­ents would be required to ‘coop­er­ate with Fed­er­al offi­cials in the enforce­ment of … Fed­er­al immi­gra­tion law’ (the ‘Immi­gra­tion Enforce­ment Con­di­tion’).“
Sim­i­lar to the case with Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) and Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency dis­as­ter fund­ing men­tioned in anoth­er law­suit filed on the same day, DOT fund­ing was con­tin­gent on states and local­i­ties com­ply­ing with the admin­is­tra­tion’s immi­gra­tion agen­da.

General Overview:

The law­suit argues that the direc­tive that immi­gra­tion enforce­ment is required to receive DOT fund­ing exceeds the defen­dants’ legal author­i­ty, is arbi­trary and capri­cious and is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in mul­ti­ple ways. Addi­tion­al­ly, the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers between Con­gress and the exec­u­tive branch, is also at play. Accord­ing to the law­suit, “The Appro­pri­a­tions, Leg­is­la­tion, and Spend­ing Claus­es of the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion assign to Con­gress the author­i­ty to cre­ate leg­is­la­tion autho­riz­ing and appro­pri­at­ing the dis­tri­b­u­tion of fed­er­al funds.”

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the press release, “Con­necti­cut receives bil­lions of dol­lars in fed­er­al trans­porta­tion fund­ing.” Con­necti­cut was also slat­ed to receive $824,220,886 each year from fed­er­al high­way for­mu­la funds, $265,353,760 appor­tioned from all Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion for­mu­la grants and $4,268,837 of fund­ing from all Motor Car­ri­er Safe­ty Admin­is­tra­tion Pro­gram grants. The state received $3,376,382 of fed­er­al fund­ing under the High­way Safe­ty Pro­gram in fis­cal year 2024 and received $1,431,328 of fund­ing under the Air­port Improve­ment Pro­gram in fis­cal year 2024. All of this fund­ing is at risk as a result of the Duffy Direc­tive.

Date of filing:

May 13, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-00208

Case title:

State of Cal­i­for­nia et al v. Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion et al

Plaintiffs: 20 states

Defendants:

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

CLOSED — Ter­mi­nat­ed on Nov. 4, 2025
Judg­ment in favor of plain­tiffs

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