A federal judge in Rhode Island has blocked the Trump administration from attaching immigration enforcement provisions to federal disaster relief funding, ruling in favor of Maine and a coalition of other states.
Maine attorney general Aaron Frey and counterparts from 19 other states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in May. They argued the Department of Homeland Security had overstepped its authority by requiring state and local governments to help enforce federal immigration law as a condition for receiving FEMA funding.
On Wednesday, a federal district court judge found those requirements were "arbitrary and capricious" as well as unconstitutional.
The order permanently blocks the administration from enforcing the new requirements against the plaintiff states, and against local governments within those states.
Maine is also part of a separate lawsuit against the federal Department of Transportation challenging similar immigration provisions.
