The Next Round fo Stimulus May See a Battle Over Federal Grants and Immigration
- Author: Monica Jackson
- Posted: 2024-02-13
Many local jurisdictions refuse to assist the federal government enforce immigration laws within their borders. This includes not running a check of immigration status during routine stops. President Trump has repeatedly denounced these sanctuary cities and has long threatened action against them. Now, he is indicating that he will try to use the COVID-19 crisis to try to put his policies into place.
President Trump Is Emboldened By a March Court Ruling
The Trump Administration has already scored a victory in federal court this year. In March, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Department of Justice could withhold grant money from a jurisdiction that refused to help it enforce immigration laws. The court had ruled that the Attorney General had the authority to set conditions on the use of the money for this particular grant program. While the Constitution prohibits the federal government from using federal funding as coercion to force states to adopt certain policies, setting conditions on a grant program was not coercion. Immediately, the Trump Administration acted to try to withhold grant money from jurisdictions it deemed to be sanctuary cities.
However, the court's ruling applied to one particular grant program and did not attach to every single grant program run by the federal government. Moreover, the case may eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court because other courts have held differently.
There is still a chance that the Trump Administration will try to cut off all grant funding from sanctuary cities as opposed to just the funding from one particular grant program. A tweet that he sent out on the issue appeared to indicate that he was threatening to withhold all federal funding from the cities.
The previous CARES Act included $150 million in funding for states and local governments. However, it did not include any restrictions on funding for sanctuary cities. However, the amount of money in the CARES Act was nowhere near enough to close the funding shortfalls that these governments are facing. It is acknowledged that the bulk of the funding for local governments who are carrying much of the burden of the COVID-19 response will come in the next round.
Trump's Desire for a Ban May Be More Aspirational than Practical
There is little chance that Congress would, on its own, include a blanket ban on funding for sanctuary cities. The bill would need to pass the Democratic-controlled House, which would not allow any legislation to include that. Quite the opposite, the House may insist on including language that would specifically forbid any conditions on grants to the states.
Given that this is direct aid to the states in the form of grants as opposed to a grant program, it would be difficult to make the argument that the federal government could then decide on its own to condition grant money on immigration enforcement. Nonetheless, it would be realistic to expect the President to try to make this an issue during negotiations. Since the next stimulus bill is expected to be a large one, these conditions matter.
If there are any issues, they will arise again in the administration of grant programs. So long as the Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue, the Trump Administration will try to stretch the 2nd Circuit ruling as far as it can go towards restricting funding. Expect the Democrats to try to include as much language as possible to ensure that there is unrestricted funding to the states and cities. In the meantime, the two parties remain far apart on the size and scope of the next stimulus bill. The Republicans have already refused to consider a bill working its way through the House.
