Judge Strikes Down Trump Plan To Tie Funding to Immigration Enforcement
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A federal judge in Rhode Island on Thursday ruled against the Trump administration's plan to condition funding for transportation initiatives across the country on cooperation with immigration authorities, saying that the plan would violate the Constitution.
Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in 10-page ruling addressed the "Duffy Directive," also known as the Immigration Enforcement Condition (IEC) which U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued in April.
Duffy attempted to require transportation grant recipients cooperate with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) deportation operations or lose out on funding from several subagencies. In response, 20 states sued the administration, seeking an immediate injunction against the directive, which McConnell Jr. granted.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference on May 20, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference on May 20, 2025 in Austin, Texas."The IEC, backed by the Duffy Directive, is arbitrary and capricious in its scope
and lacks specificity in how the States are to cooperate on immigration enforcement in exchange for Congressionally appropriated transportation dollars–grant money that the States rely on to keep their residents safely and efficiently on the road, in the sky, and on the rails," the judge wrote.
He added that the conditions would violate the Spending Clause as well, as the IEC is "not at all reasonably related to the transportation funding program grants whose statutorily articulated purposes are for the maintenance and safety" of the various transit apparatuses across the country.
The court issued its order quickly due to an impending June 20 deadline for applicants to file for certain grants, all of which would have included the Duffy Directive language.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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It seems like it's getting more coverage than ever in the media, and being a bit of an expert in that field yourself, I was curious if you believed that that extra attention is warranted. Do you think it's becoming more common now? Do you think it's ever justified? Other than general polarization, what about politics is breaking people apart to the extent of going no contact? Do you think there are any decent solutions? Or do you think the entire topic is blown out of proportion? I know this is a lot of questions, but like I said, the topic fascinated me.' — Justin Bliley Washington Court House, Ohio Mr. Bliley, There's probably no way to quantify whether political estrangement is getting worse. It's an inherently subjective question since it relates to the feelings people have about each other. But I can't imagine that political estrangement is worse now than it was 50 years ago, when a generational clash over Vietnam, the draft, Watergate, civil rights, women's liberation, abortion and everything else had just taken place against the backdrop of economic contraction and crushing inflation. The baby boomers, then mostly in their 20s, had just completed one of the most successful youth movements in American history. It was the end of an old consensus about how people in our country lived, loved, worshiped, worked and served. Now those same baby boomers, mostly in their 70s, are fighting like hell against the next revolution, and for the moment seem to be winning. I hope that in another 50 years, people look back on the 2010s and 2020s as a similarly transitional period in which a new, useful and durable consensus got hammered out. That way that happens is that some fights are won and lost while others simply fade away, obviated by technology or just run out of steam. A consensus is born out of a great deal of exhaustion. When people get tired enough of fighting, they can become amenable to compromise. Another similarity to 50 years ago is that America was getting ready to celebrate a big birthday, the bicentennial of 1976 then and the semiquincentennial of 2026. What I saw in the Army parade last week that kicked off the festivities gave me some reason to hope that the hokey, homey patriotism of which we are very much in need these days might make a comeback. And none too soon. All best, c You should email us! Write to WholeHogPolitics@ with your tips, kudos, criticisms, insights, rediscovered words, wonderful names, recipes, and, always, good jokes. Please include your real name—at least first and last—and hometown. Make sure to let us know in the email if you want to keep your submission private. My colleague, the resolute Meera Sehgal, and I will look for your emails and then share the most interesting ones and my responses here. 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Chris Stirewalt is political editor for The Hill and NewsNation, the host of The Hill Sunday on NewsNation and The CW, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of books on politics and the media. Meera Sehgal contributed to this report.
