A coalition of 20 US state attorneys general filed two separate lawsuits on May 13, 2025, against the Trump administration for attempting to illegally coerce their states into sweeping unlawful immigration enforcement by threatening to withhold billions in federal funding for emergency services and infrastructure.
The coalition of attorneys general filing the lawsuits is from: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and Vermont.
“This is another attempt to place conditions on money by holding hostage our safe roads and public safety,” said Dan Rayfield, the Attorney General of Oregon, who assumed this position on December 31, 2024. “This is money Oregonians rely on for things like helping communities recover after wildfires, strengthening flood protection in places like Tillamook, and fixing roads and bridges.”
The coalition of attorneys general filed one lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
The coalition filed a second lawsuit against the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the federal DOT Secretary Sean Duffy.
According to the coalition, each agency has imposed new conditions that would require the states and state agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts or lose out on billions of federal dollars that states use to protect public safety and transportation infrastructure.
In their lawsuit against the DOT, Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition point out that imposing an immigration-enforcement condition on all federal transportation funds, which Congress appropriated to support critical infrastructure projects, is beyond the agency’s legal authority.
The coalition added that the safety of Americans could be at risk if states are forced to forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal emergency preparedness and response funds. For example, in 2024, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management alone received $243 million in federal funding from FEMA. Last year, the Oregon Department of Transportation received more than $728 million from the DOT, which funded mainly federal highway projects.
“Oregon, like many states, has made its own choices about what’s important for our communities and how to use our state resources to achieve those goals. We believe it’s a fundamental right for Oregon to set its own course,” commented Rayfield.