RHODE ISLAND — More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration on Thursday for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions to receive federal disaster funding. The lawsuit was filed in Rhode Island and challenges Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security policies.

The suit contends that federal officials are leveraging financial aid to compel changes to state governance and law enforcement priorities. The lawsuit argues that the administration is requiring states to change their elections systems and help the Department of Homeland Security with immigration enforcement.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha condemned the federal strategy as an overreach of executive authority. Neronha said the latest move mirrors previous attempts to coerce states through financial pressure. "Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding and once again, they won’t get away with it," he said.

The legal challenge targets specific mandates tied to the receipt of federal grants. The requirements being challenged include that states change their elections systems. Under the disputed conditions, states must transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct a manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters, and verify the citizenship of every registered voter in the state’s voter databases. States must also assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

Neronha described the administration's approach as a threat to state sovereignty and public welfare. He argued that the federal government was attempting to force policy changes through financial duress. "This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by attempting to bully the states into relinquishing their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents," he said.

The states argue that putting conditions on congressionally appropriated funding violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause. The conditions would allow the Department of Homeland Security to terminate grants at any time and for any reason.

If states fail to comply, they risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding. Homeland Security Grant Program funding is used to fund measures to protect citizens from cyberattacks and terrorism.

The latest lawsuit argues the administration is attempting to apply some of the same conditions on 2026 funding. This legal action follows two prior judicial decisions that restricted similar federal actions.

A ruling last year barred the administration from putting conditions on other Federal Emergency Management Agency funding. In 2025, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that tying disaster relief funding to immigration enforcement violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

A second ruling this year blocked the administration from redirecting Department of Homeland Security funding away from states not seen as supportive to its agenda. Rhode Island's federal court has previously blocked the Trump administration from redirecting DHS funding to politically aligned states, with a 2025 ruling mandating restored funding levels for plaintiff states.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. outlined the potential consequences of such federal mandates in a previous context. "The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects," McConnell said.

The 2026 lawsuit in Rhode Island federal court is the third major legal challenge against the Trump administration's conditions on federal funding, following similar actions in 2024 and 2025 targeting Homeland Security and Transportation Department policies. The 2026 lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration's conditions could jeopardize $3 billion annually in FEMA funding.