Washington joins multistate lawsuit over DHS, FEMA funding cuts

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a coalition of 12 attorneys general suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), accusing the agencies of unlawfully reallocating federal security funding for political purposes.
The lawsuit comes after DHS and FEMA slashed millions in homeland security grants just four days before the end of the federal fiscal year. States that refused to divert local law enforcement resources to help enforce federal immigration law were hit hardest by the cuts, while the funds were redistributed elsewhere.

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Washington lost roughly $2 million in funding, and the timeline to spend the remaining money was shortened from three years to just one year. Other states faced even steeper losses: Illinois’ funding was cut by 69% (over $30 million) and New York’s by 79% (over $100 million).
The lawsuit argues that DHS and FEMA violated the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by conditioning federal funding on states’ willingness to enforce immigration laws. A federal court had already ruled against a similar effort earlier this month, issuing a permanent injunction.

The Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), which allocates about $1 billion annually to strengthen states’ capacity to prevent and respond to terrorism and disasters, was among the hardest hit. FEMA awarded just $226 million to the suing states—a 51% reduction from what had been promised.
Attorneys general from Illinois, New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island are leading the coalition. Washington, along with Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont, signed on. The group is seeking a temporary restraining order to block the reallocation.