Press Releases
12/23/2025
Attorney General Tong Wins Lawsuit to Protect Critical Homeland Security Funding from Politically Motivated Cuts
(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong has won a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the administration’s political agenda. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted a motion for summary judgment brought by Attorney General Tong and a coalition of 11 other attorneys general and the governor of Pennsylvania.
“Donald Trump tried to play politics with taxpayer-funded disaster relief. We sued, and the court saw these cuts for what they were— not plausible, not rational, and not lawful. We are going to keep fighting and we’re going to keep winning to stop Donald Trump from hurting our states,” said Attorney General Tong.
On Sept. 27, without any notice or explanation, and four days before the end of the federal fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut funding to certain states that were unwilling to divert law enforcement resources away from core public safety services to assist in enforcing federal immigration law, while reallocating those funds to other states.
FEMA issued award notifications for its single largest grant program, the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), which allocates approximately $1 billion in funds annually for state and municipal efforts to prevent, prepare for and respond to acts of terrorism. FEMA granted only $250 million to the 12 states that joined Tong in the lawsuit. This was a $242 million, or 49%, reduction from the total amount that FEMA had previously stated it would provide to these states. Some states saw even sharper cuts. For instance, Illinois received a 69% reduction in funds, totaling over $30 million. New York received a 79% reduction in funds, totaling over $100 million. DHS then redistributed the funds that it had cut to other states. Smaller states like Connecticut receive a statutorily set minimum in FEMA funding. Connecticut’s funding remained flat at just over $8.7 million through the HSGP and the Emergency Management Performance grants in question. However, FEMA imposed a series of new arbitrary constraints on how and when states must spend their dollars. This includes a needless additional requirement that funds be spent during a single fiscal year, as opposed to the previously set three years, effectively defunding larger multiyear projects and those that require longer state and federal review processes.
In her opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy found that states’ policies pertaining to federal immigration enforcement were a factor in DHS’ decision to reallocate the funding.
“Neither a law degree nor a degree in mathematics is required to deduce that no plausible, rational formula could produce this result,” McElroy wrote of the reductions in funding. “Nor could any reasonable, data-driven approach have resulted in the obviously manual increases in awards to favored jurisdictions.”
The court ordered DHS to amend the HSGP awards issued to the plaintiff states to reflect the funding levels that DHS had previously stated it would allocate, before the last-minute changes.
The court further held that other significant changes to emergency-preparedness programs, also made at the last minute at the end of the federal fiscal year, were unlawful and set them aside. DHS had cut the length of the grant awards from three years to one year. DHS had also required states, in order to receive emergency management funding, to certify their own populations as of Sept. 30, 2025, while excluding individuals who had been “removed from the State pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States.” The court held that these actions were also arbitrary and capricious.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha co-led the lawsuit.
Joining them and Attorney General Tong in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington, and the governor of Pennsylvania.
- Twitter: @AGWilliamTong
- Facebook: CT Attorney General
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov
Consumer Inquiries:
860-808-5318
attorney.general@ct.gov