California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed two lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grants. These grants are unrelated to federal civil immigration enforcement. Attorney General Bonta is leading a coalition of 20 states in filing the DHS lawsuit alongside the attorneys general of Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and is leading the same coalition in filing the DOT lawsuit, alongside the attorneys general of Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Maryland. In the lawsuits, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that imposing this new set of conditions across a range of grant programs is arbitrary and capricious, exceeds the Trump Administration’s legal authority, and violates the Spending Clause. “President Trump doesn’t have the authority to unlawfully coerce state and local governments into using their resources for federal immigration enforcement – and his latest attempt to bully them into doing so is blatantly illegal,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: The President is threatening to yank funds to improve our roads, keep our planes in the air, prepare for emergencies, and protect against terrorist attacks if states do not fall in line with his demands. He’s treating these funds, which have nothing to do with immigration enforcement and everything to do with the safety of our communities, as a bargaining chip. But this is not a game. I’ll continue taking the President to court each time he breaks the law and puts Californians’ interests on the line.”