The new U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, issued an order this week that threatened to shift federal transportation funding away from local governments that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
The order revives an unsettled legal fight from the first Trump term over whether the federal government can withhold funds from “sanctuary cities.” In early 2017, President Trump tried to block millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to Democratic-led cities and states that had policies declining to aid federal agents in identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants. Lawsuits against the effort never fully resolved by the end of his term.
The money at stake now is potentially far larger than the law enforcement grants: The Department of Transportation sends billions of dollars annually to states and local governments to fund highways, transit systems, airports, bridges, commuter rail and ports, as well as road safety projects.
“This is on a much, much larger scale,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown.
Real money that can let some people test the courage of their convictions.
