California Attorney General Rob Bonta took a victory lap Wednesday as he said the Trump administration “accepted defeat” in trying to impose immigration enforcement requirements in exchange for transportation funds.
The Department of Justice dropped its appeal on Tuesday of a court decision mandating that it not block funding to states that don’t accept their immigration requirements.
“The Trump Administration attempted to use vital transportation dollars as a bargaining chip for its political agenda,” Bonta said in a statement. “That is why my fellow attorneys general and I stepped in to stop these illegal actions – winning a permanent injunction in the lower court.”
“I am pleased that the Trump Administration has accepted defeat and agreed to drop its appeal of this decision,” he added. “California is not playing games when it comes to vital transportation dollars that support our public infrastructure, and we will continue taking the President to court each time he weaponizes federal funding to bully our communities.”
The dropped appeal signaled the conclusion of a court case involving California and 21 other states. The Trump administration had been waging war with California over transportation funding on a variety of projects.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced last week that the administration was slashing about $160 million in highway funding for the Golden State. Duffy said he canceled the funding because California failed to nix “over 17,000 illegally issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses.”
“While [Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA)] may not care about protecting you and your family on our roads, the Trump Administration does. We’re pulling this funding to ensure federal tax dollars don’t fund this charade,” Duffy said.
California has argued its federal transportation funding is in no “way connected to immigration enforcement.”
The Trump administration did manage to pull its federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project last year. Complaining that the project had been a wasteful “train to nowhere,” the administration landed a victory in court after California dropped its lawsuit against the administration demanding that the funding be reinstated.
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California’s rail authority said the lack of involvement from the federal government offers them a “new opportunity.”
“Moving forward without the Trump administration’s involvement allows the Authority to pursue proven global best practices used successfully by modern high-speed rail systems around the world,” they said.
