On July 23, 2026, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha co-led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania challenging the Trump Administration for imposing unlawful conditions on billions of dollars in federal grants that help States and local governments prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from catastrophic disasters.   

The coalition’s lawsuit challenges  the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempts to impose unlawful conditions on billions of dollars in federal funds that Congress appropriated for states to use in preparing for and responding to emergencies and natural disasters, including acts of terrorism. The conditions challenged in the lawsuit would (1) impose unlawful immigration conditions; (2) force all states to change the way they conduct elections; and (3) permit DHS to terminate any federal grant at any time and for any reason. 

A coalition of attorneys general filed two similar and successful lawsuits in 2025, challenging DHS’s efforts to condition billions in federal emergency funding on states’ agreement to enforce federal immigration law and DHS’s subsequent attempt to unlawfully reallocate federal homeland security funding away from jurisdictions it viewed as insufficiently supportive of the President’s political agenda. 

Now, DHS and FEMA have established grant conditions for 2026 funding that again attempt to coerce the states into complying with the administration’s policy priorities. The conditions in total affect billions of dollars in funding, including over a billion dollars in Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding that states use to support security measures and protect residents from terrorism, cyberattacks, and more. HSGP was established in direct response to the horrific events of September 11, 2001, to help States and local governments prevent, prepare for, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism. Other FEMA-administered grant programs are also impacted, such as the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program, which helps States pay for emergency management staff who prepare for and respond to natural disasters, mass casualty events, and other disasters.   

DHS and FEMA have again threatened to impose the same immigration conditions that a court struck down as unconstitutional in 2025. The conditions would require states to devote scarce law enforcement resources to assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. These conditions were found to be unlawful and were enjoined by a district judge last year. The agencies are also attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. A federal court recently rejected the Trump Administration’s attempts to interpret an existing regulation to have that effect.  

DHS and FEMA also threaten to withhold 20% of each state’s counterterrorism funding if states do not change state election law to conform to the administration’s policy goals. The attorneys general assert that these requirements, the latest in a series of attempts from the administration to unlawfully “nationalize” the running of elections, would force states to abandon years of work and millions of dollars of investments, all to obtain unrelated funding that Congress earmarked for the prevention of terrorist attacks. 

Finally, the challenged funding conditions unlawfully claim effectively unfettered power to terminate these grants on a whim. The agencies are attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. This constant threat of termination undermines the stability and reliability that these critical programs rely on to be effective, and are contrary to Congressional funding directives.   

The coalition argues that these new conditions are unlawful and unconstitutional, and asks the court to block them from being implemented.
 

Despite our winning two similar lawsuits this past year to protect the same federal funding that is in jeopardy today, the Trump administration continues its wholly improper efforts to use federal public-safety funds as a means to push its political and policy priorities. I will continue to stand with my colleagues against the Trump administration’s illegal and dangerous attempts to coerce states into compliance with the president’s political agenda.Attorney General Kwame Raoul