Judge blocks Trump's efforts to block El Paso County federal funding
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could not withhold tens of millions of dollars in anti-terrorism funding if municipal governments didn't change their election processes ahead of the midterm elections.
El Paso County and five other municipal governments filed the lawsuit Aug. 17, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency threatened to withdraw Homeland Security Grant Program anti-terrorism funding from cities and counties that did not comply with election policies set by the Trump administration.
The Trump-ordered election changes included a shift away from voting machines, a 5% manual audit of paper ballots, and the use of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's "error-filled" Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez said in a news release.
The changes would put $1.75 million in law enforcement funding and more than $170,000 in first-responder funding at risk in El Paso County, Sanchez said in August .
"El Paso County has run elections responsibly for decades," Sanchez said in a statement. "Conditioning our counterterrorism funding on an unproven citizenship verification system was reckless, and today's ruling stops this gross abuse of power in its tracks."
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Judge Amir H. Ali of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, Sept. 29, granted summary judgment in the lawsuit, ruling that DHS and FEMA acted unlawfully by attempting to withhold Homeland Security Grant Program funds from municipal governments over the requested election changes.
"The statute gives FEMA the authority to fund projects proposed by states and high-risk urban areas; it does not give FEMA authority to use the possibility of grants to induce states or high-risk urban areas to carry out the federal government's preferred projects at their own expense," Ali wrote in his ruling.
Ali added that the U.S. government did not show how the election changes related to stopping terrorism.
The ruling allows municipal governments to "continue to access essential public safety funding — used to train first responders and bolster counterterrorism efforts — without being forced to overhaul already-secure elections and adopt policies that the administration has tried and failed to impose through executive orders and stalled legislation," the news release states.
President Donald Trump, DHS and FEMA have not publicly commented on the ruling.
The Homeland Security Grant Program was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The program was created to help local governments prevent and respond to acts of terrorism.
Along with El Paso County, Harris County in Houston, Travis County in Austin, Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee filed the lawsuit against DHS, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, FEMA, and FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton.
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The municipal government officials "warned these new mandates would be costly, impractical, and unlawful. This decision affirms what the plaintiffs already knew: power over elections belongs to the states and Congress, not to a federal agency using public safety dollars as leverage," the news release states.
The court's ruling comes weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms General Election. The local government officials argued that the "Trump administration's attempt to hold HSGP federal funds hostage marked the latest tactic in its coordinated effort to give the federal government influence in state-run elections."
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com .
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Judge blocks Trump's efforts to block El Paso County federal funding
