In a significant legal rebuke to President Donald Trump’s immigration policy legacy, a federal judge in Rhode Island has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the federal government from withholding transportation funding from states that do not comply with federal immigration enforcement directives.
The ruling came Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who sided with a coalition of 20 Democratic-led states that filed a lawsuit challenging a directive from the Department of Transportation (DOT) under the Trump administration. The controversial policy, often referred to as the “Duffy Directive,” would have allowed the federal government to deny or revoke transportation infrastructure funds to any state or local government that refused to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or implement immigration enforcement priorities.
Judge McConnell described the directive as “unconstitutional and/or unlawful,” ruling that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act and exceeds federal authority under the Spending Clause of the Constitution. He further determined that the administration’s actions were ultra vires—legal terminology meaning that the executive branch had acted beyond its legal power.
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