Federal judge blocks Justice Department from tying police grants to immigration enforcement
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAA federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Wednesday, November 4, 2026, that the Justice Department exceeded its authority by requiring states to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement in order to receive public safety grants, permanently barring the conditions for the 22 states and the District of Columbia that brought the lawsuit.
Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled from the bench in Providence in the case of State of New Jersey et al v. United States Department of Justice, granting the states' motion for partial summary judgment and permanently enjoining the department from enforcing the immigration conditions against the states that sued.
The conditions required grant recipients to give federal immigration officers access to people held in state custody who were suspected of being in the country unlawfully, and to notify the Department of Homeland Security before those people were released. McConnell held that Congress designed the grant programs with fixed formulas and eligibility rules, and that the Justice Department went beyond its power by adding immigration cooperation as a condition of receiving the money.
The permanent injunction covers the immigration conditions the department attached to the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program and to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Title II formula grants, which fund crime prevention, police equipment, mental health programs and juvenile justice initiatives. Conditions on the larger Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program were already blocked by an earlier injunction in the same case.
The fight began in August 2025, when the administration imposed immigration-related conditions on more than $1.3 billion in funding under the Victims of Crime Act, which supports crime victims. The conditions were dropped after the states sued, but the Justice Department applied similar conditions to new law-enforcement and juvenile justice grants this year, and the states returned to court.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport helped lead the coalition, which was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island. The plaintiff states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia. New Jersey was allocated about $4.2 million in Byrne grants for fiscal year 2025; Connecticut received more than $6.8 million in Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funds and $5.1 million in Byrne State Crisis Intervention funds between fiscal years 2022 and 2025.
The ruling binds only the states that sued. It does not stop federal immigration enforcement itself, and it does not impose a nationwide ban on immigration-related grant conditions. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision is one of a series of lawsuits in which Democratic state attorneys general and advocacy groups have challenged the administration's efforts to force grant recipients to align with its priorities. The states argued the conditions forced them to choose between public safety funding and their own policies on assisting federal civil immigration enforcement, which they said is a federal responsibility, not a state one.
Sources: Reuters, "US judge rules DOJ cannot link states' grant funding to immigration enforcement" (Nov. 4, 2026, full text verified); Bloomberg Law, "States Get Relief in Crime Grant Dispute With Justice Department" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified); Connecticut Attorney General's Office, "Attorney General Tong Wins Major Case Protecting Crucial Law Enforcement Funding" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified). Event date verified: ruling from the bench Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Distinct from the November 2 note on ICE re-arresting immigrants after habeas release orders.
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