Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has joined two multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration for placing immigration enforcement requirements on federal funding issued by Transportation and Homeland Security Departments.
The lawsuits argue that the administration overstepped its authority in demanding that all recipients of federal funding from the two departments cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
In the suit against the Department of Transportation, the states say Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cited no legal statute when he issued a letter last month adding immigration enforcement as a condition to receiving federal funding awards.
They say the Department of Homeland Security also offered no legal backing for its new terms and conditions that impose a similar requirement, calling the Department's actions a "funding hostage scheme."
The states argue that the administration's efforts to impose the conditions violate the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the power to control spending.
