Twenty-three Democratic-led states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration over new conditions attached to Federal Emergency Management Agency grant funds, challenging requirements that states verify the citizenship of their voter rolls and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. It is led by the attorneys general of California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, joined by 19 other state attorneys general, the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and the city of Washington, D.C.
“Congress never gave DHS or FEMA authority to rewrite state election law, require cooperation with federal immigration agents, or terminate federal funding streams at any time and for any reason,” the states wrote in their complaint.
The dispute centers on one of FEMA’s largest grant programs. Under the new conditions, states must verify the citizenship status of registered voters to continue receiving funds. States say the system used for that verification is flawed. DHS and FEMA have also required states to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agencies as a condition of receiving the grants.
The Trump administration has used similar grant conditions across several programs since taking office in January 2025 as a tool to pressure blue states into compliance with its immigration and election integrity agenda.
The lawsuit points to two earlier court rulings: one holding that FEMA unlawfully tied grants to immigration conditions, and a second invalidating an attempt to reallocate millions in grant dollars. The states argue the administration has simply ignored those rulings and imposed new conditions on the same programs.
“Apparently undeterred by these judgments, DHS and FEMA have continued their campaign of coercion, imposing a raft of new conditions on the same grant programs,” the complaint states.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul was direct at a press conference Thursday. “President Trump refuses to listen to the courts when they tell him that he cannot exceed the authority of his office, and he cannot extort states into doing what he wants,” Raoul said.
The case adds to a months-long legal clash between DHS and Democrat-led states over the terms of their federal funding, a conflict that has played out across multiple agencies and grant programs since early 2025.
