Trump Blocked from Pulling NYC Terrorism Funds by US Judge (1)

New York state won a temporary order forcing the Trump administration to hold off redirecting $33.9 million in anti-terrorism security funds.

The funds were awarded under a post-9/11 program designed to help protect against chemical, biological, radiological and explosive threats, the state said in papers filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The funds are also intended to improve transit security and evacuation systems.

“Obviously New York is no stranger to the risk of terrorist attacks and it’s not just 9/11 that tells us that,” US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said in a hearing Wednesday, pointing to the day when “3,000 people died within sight of this courthouse.”

New York is suing to restore the money, which was earmarked by the US for mass transit security. The funds were blocked because of the state’s immigration enforcement policies, which Trump says are in conflict with those of his administration. The judge agreed with New York that the funds were required to be allocated to states “based solely on risk” of terrorist attack.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency “is focused on aligning its grant programs with the Trump Administration’s priorities to streamline federal resources and reduce the burden on the American taxpayer,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure communities remain secure while making the system more effective and accountable, moving away from the fraud, waste, and abuse of the past.”

Kaplan said the state will “quite likely” prove that “the reason the money was cut off was a determination on the part of this administration that New York should be punished for not cooperating with its wishes with regard to what it calls the largest mass-deportation program in history.”

New York claims the money was intended for other states at the last minute, near the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Kaplan temporarily blocked the US from making the funds unavailable to New York by disbursing it to other states or returning it to the US Treasury. He set a hearing for Oct. 9 to consider whether to issue a more permanent order.

“New Yorkers lived through the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history, and we know what is at stake here,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Congress created this program after 9/11 to protect millions of daily riders. I am asking the court to act before midnight to stop these funds from vanishing and to ensure that New Yorkers are not put at risk by this administration’s political games.”

New York is also one of 11 states and the District of Columbia that sued in Rhode Island federal court to block the administration from withholding emergency management funds from what it views as “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts. A judge in that case issued an emergency order on Monday requiring the Department of Homeland Security to stop efforts to redirect the funds.

The New York case is New York v. Noem, 25-cv-08106, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan); the multi-state case is Illinois v. Noem, 25-cv-00495, US District Court, District of Rhode Island (Providence).

(Adds DHS statement in fifth paragraph.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net;
Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons, Steve Stroth

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