Attorney General Ellison wins lawsuit to protect crime-fighting grants from illegal Trump conditions

Court permanently blocks Trump Administration from illegally imposing conditions related to immigration enforcement on public-safety grants that Congress authorized

November 6, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and a coalition of 23 states secured an important victory in court this week that stops the Trump Administration’s imposition of illegal immigration-enforcement conditions on Congressionally-authorized public safety grants, including grants intended to keep law enforcement officers safe and fight crime.

On November 4, District of Rhode Island Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. declared the Trump Administration’s actions unlawful and permanently blocked any implementation or enforcement of these illegal conditions. The court’s order means Attorney General Ellison and the coalition have won their August 2025 lawsuit against the conditions.

“The Trump Administration has shown over and over that they’re willing to break the law and compromise Americans’ health and safety in order to impose their radical, un-American immigration enforcement priorities on us. I’m very pleased that the court has definitively ruled they cannot deny essential public-safety grants for these highly political purposes,” Attorney General Ellison said. “I’ll keep fighting to keep all Minnesotans safe from Trump.”

Last year, the Trump Administration, disregarding the clear letter of the law and intent of Congress, declared that states would be unable to access Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds unless they agreed to the Administration’s extreme immigration demands. In August 2025, Attorney General Ellison and coalition sued to block these conditions and in October 2025, succeeded in getting the federal government to remove them on more than $1.3 billion of VOCA funds, including $22 million for victims and survivors of crime in Minnesota.

However, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice applied these illegal conditions to new grants, including funds dedicated to law enforcement and juvenile justice. Among the affected programs is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Formula Grants (known as the Byrne JAG Program). For decades, regardless of which political party held power, the Byrne JAG Program has been the leading federal source of criminal-justice funding to state and local governments.

Civil immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and not a state government responsibility. The Trump Administration’s unlawful attempts to coerce states into doing their bidding conflict with core principles of American governance — the separation of powers and federalism. The Administration’s actions violated laws passed by Congress as well as the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Joining Attorney General Ellison in this lawsuit, which was let by the attorneys general of California, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.