US federal judge vacates immigration condition for federal transportation funding News
naeimasgary / Pixabay
US federal judge vacates immigration condition for federal transportation funding

Chief Judge John McConnell for the US District Court of Rhode Island ruled Tuesday that the Department of Transportation (DOT) cannot require states to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to receive federal transportation funding. The case was brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general in May, claiming that the DOT and other federal agencies were unlawfully withholding billions of dollars in funding.

The order deemed the “Immigration Enforcement Condition” (IEC) unlawful on three grounds: lack of statutory authority, violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and violation of the Spending Clause of the US Constitution. The court found that the eligibility requirements for funding are determined by the statutes enabling the DOT to issue grants, none of which include cooperation with federal law enforcement. Secondly, the court described the imposition of the IEC as “arbitrary and capricious” under the APA, on the basis that Congress could not have intended to give the DOT “the authority to impose such sweeping immigration-related conditions on federal transportation funding.” Lastly, the court cited case law interpreting the Spending Clause as prohibiting conditions on federal funds that are unrelated to the grants themselves. According to the court, the IEC “bears no reasonable relationship to the transportation infrastructure programs.” The court vacated the condition and enjoined the DOT from implementing or enforcing it.

The DOT introduced the requirement after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January, instructing the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to prevent sanctuary cities from receiving funding. As a result, the DOT issued a letter to states in April asserting that an obligation of being a grant recipient was to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The IEC was then added to grant agreements and the general terms and conditions of funding schemes within DOT subagencies.

Paired with the objectives of “general welfare” and “partnership and coordination” in its governing statute, the DOT asserts that it may lawfully place immigration conditions on transportation funding to states. It argues that the enabling statutes for DOT grants have limited restrictions on its ability to impose conditions.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.