Rhode Island Halts DHS Immigration Conditions on Disaster Grants

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Tuesday accused the Department of Homeland Security of attempting to coerce states into accepting immigration-enforcement conditions tied to federal disaster grants, ordering the agency to stop enforcing the provisions and to revise grant documents within seven days. U.S. District Judge William Smith, who issued a summary judgment last month finding the conditions unlawful, said the department had attached effectively the same requirements to grant awards while adding language that they would take effect if his ruling were stayed or overturned.

Smith said the conditional phrasing did not cure the problem. "Defendant's new condition is not a good faith effort to comply with the order," he wrote. "It is a hamhanded 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." He ordered Homeland Security to permanently stop enforcing the challenged conditions against the plaintiff states and to remove language in grant documents referencing compliance with federal immigration law and the possibility that his ruling could be stayed or...