“Despite its repeated losses in court, the Trump Administration continues to try to impose unlawful funding conditions well outside of its authority,” said Attorney General Davenport. “FEMA cannot use counterterrorism and other essential federal funding as a weapon to coerce states into assisting with civil immigration enforcement or to change our election administration. Threatening counterterrorism funding at a time when the President’s war in the Middle East magnifies threats is dangerous and wrong.” The coalition’s lawsuit filed today challenges decisions by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to impose unlawful conditions on billions of dollars in federal funds that Congress appropriated for states to use in preparing for and responding to emergencies and natural disasters, including acts of terrorism. The conditions challenged in the lawsuit would (1) impose unlawful immigration conditions; (2) force all states to change the way they conduct elections; and (3) permit DHS to terminate any federal grant at any time and for any reason. New Jersey co-led two similar and successful lawsuits in 2025, each in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Rhode Island, challenging DHS’s efforts to condition billions in federal emergency funding on states’ agreement to enforce federal immigration law and DHS’s subsequent attempt to unlawfully reallocate federal homeland security funding away from jurisdictions it viewed as insufficiently supportive of the President’s political agenda. Now, DHS and FEMA have established grant conditions for 2026 funding that again attempt to coerce the states into complying with the administration’s policy priorities. The conditions in total affect billions of dollars in funding, including over a billion dollars in Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding that states use to support security measures and protect residents from terrorism, cyberattacks, and more.
New Jersey receives over $55 million in HSGP funding each year for state and municipal efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to acts of terrorism. First, DHS and FEMA have again threatened to impose the same immigration conditions that they attempted to impose in 2025 on all federal grant programs. The conditions would require states to devote scarce law enforcement resources to assisting DHS in enforcing federal immigration law.
These conditions were found to be unlawful and were enjoined by a district judge last year. The agencies are also attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. A federal court recently rejected the Trump Administration’s attempts to interpret an existing regulation to have that effect.
Source: NJ Attorney General. Jersey Alerts is publishing this official public-safety update for awareness. Details may change as the agency updates its release.
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