Massachusetts sues Trump admin. over $6.9M homeland security funding cuts
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Massachusetts' latest legal fight against the Trump administration is over $6.9 million that the state lost in federal public safety funds.
Why it matters: State leaders say they lost the funds because they wouldn't reallocate "core" resources to support the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement.
Catch up quick: DHS and FEMA recently awarded the state $15.3 million in homeland security grants, Gov. Maura Healey's office said.
- The state had previously received $22.2 million.
What they're saying: "The Biden administration used FEMA as its own personal piggy bank to fund far-left radical organizations, house criminal illegal aliens and support pseudo-science," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release announcing the funding awards.
- "It is no longer open season [on] the American taxpayer at DHS."
State of play: Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 11 other AGs filed a lawsuit against the administration last week, accusing the feds of penalizing states that don't want to use local resources to enforce federal immigration laws.
Friction point: Boston has seen historically low homicide rates in recent years, but Trump administration officials have called Boston's South Station "crime-ridden" and blamed the city's "sanctuary" policies for the presence of undocumented immigrants with criminal records as far out as New Bedford and Lowell.
- Officials say, however, that the DHS cuts would hamper their efforts to keep Greater Boston and other regions safe.
Zoom in: The funds would have supported staffing for regional homeland security planning, maritime first responder training and police equipment, according to the state's Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
- OEM Boston lost out on $1.5 million for the regional SWAT Team, $521,000 for disaster preparedness training for first responders at Boston's port, and more than $1.35 million for PSNet (the public safety network), cybersecurity needs and technological upgrades.
- The agency had also requested $1 million to keep paying for a gunshot detection service and Briefcam, a video analysis tool that uses facial recognition, license plate recognition and heat mapping. That won't be funded through DHS, either.
- Other funding requests came from MAPC for various homeland security and public safety projects across eastern and central Massachusetts.
- MAPC and OEM Boston did not respond to requests for comment about the projects affected by the funding reduction.