Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies on Capitol Hill on May 6, 2025.

A federal judge blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security on Oct. 14, saying they’re trying to "bully" state and local governments into cooperating with President Donald Trump's anti-immigration campaign if they want to receive federal disaster relief funds.

U.S. Senior District Judge William Smith in Rhode Island ruled Sept. 24 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS could not require states receiving FEMA money to help with the administration’s unprecedented deportation and crime-fighting efforts using DHS federal agents.

FEMA then sent out grant letters that included the same immigration enforcement conditions that the federal judge’s ruling had blocked. They warned that the conditions would immediately go into effect if Smith’s injunction was vacated or put on hold.

Smith responded with a sharply worded order saying DHS award letters being sent out "have done precisely what the Memorandum and Order forbids, which is requiring Plaintiff States to agree to assist in federal immigration enforcement or else forgo the award of DHS grants."

"No matter how confident Defendants may be of their chances on appeal, at present, the contested conditions are unlawful," Smith wrote in his Oct. 14 order.

Smith added that DHS’ new conditions on grant awards are "not a good faith effort to comply with the order; it is a ham-handed 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."

Smith, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002, ordered DHS to remove any references to immigration enforcement from disaster aid awards and to issue revised grant letters within seven days.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had no immediate comment on whether DHS is appealing Smith's ruling. But she told USA TODAY in a statement Oct. 15 that: "Cities and states who break the law and prevent us from arresting criminal illegal aliens should not receive federal funding."

"The Trump Administration is committed to restoring the rule of law," McLaughlin said. "No lawsuit, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that."

Smith’s ruling came in a case brought by a coalition of 20 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, who filed suit in May arguing that DHS couldn’t legally pressure them into using state and local resources for federal immigration operations.

Legal experts said Smith’s ruling could have a ripple effect in other areas in which the Trump administration is seeking to impose conditions on federal funding, especially under circumstances that appear to be coercive.

Already, the Trump administration is facing other legal challenges over its efforts to force state and local governments to enact its policies by threatening to cut or restrict federal funding.

Another federal judge, also in Rhode Island, on Sept. 30 temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $233 million in counterterrorism grant funds for Democratic-led states, including New York and Illinois.

Eleven states sued the Trump administration the day before over last-minutes changes to the grants, arguing that Trump was retaliating against them by redirecting funding away from Democratic-led states just as the fiscal year ended, Reuters reported at the time.

The states asked for an immediate restraining order to protect the funds from expiring while they challenged the administration action in court.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy – a Trump appointee – agreed, saying the funds had been cut in a "slapdash" manner and issuing a temporary restraining order.

Trump also has threatened to dismantle FEMA altogether and pass on to states and local governments more of the responsibilities and costs of responding to natural disasters.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge blasts Trump administration for linking disaster aid to immigration enforcement

Reporting by Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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