DOJ attached immigration-enforcement conditions to FY2026 law-enforcement and juvenile-justice grants, lawsuit alleges

On August 21, 2026, a coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia, co-led by the attorneys general of New Jersey, California, Delaware, Illinois, and Rhode Island, sued the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in Rhode Island, alleging that DOJ had attached four new civil-immigration-enforcement conditions to fiscal year 2026 grants funding state and local law enforcement, juvenile justice, and crisis intervention programs. Most of the affected grants, including the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program, were awarded in July 2026 with the new conditions already attached; no source pins the exact date DOJ adopted the conditions themselves.

The 80-page complaint describes four conditions: local authorities must notify DHS when a detainee is released if DHS requested that information; they must not block DHS agents from questioning inmates about immigration status; they may not disclose federal law-enforcement information in a way that could be read as shielding a fugitive; and they may not restrict state or local employees from exchanging immigration-status information with federal agents. States said the conditions apply not just to Byrne JAG but also to crisis-intervention and juvenile-justice grant funding -- in Wisconsin alone, more than $6 million, including $3.2 million in general grant assistance, $2.1 million for a crisis intervention program, and $800,000 for juvenile-justice and delinquency prevention. New Jersey said its law enforcement agencies received more than $21 million in Byrne JAG funds from fiscal years 2019 through 2024; Connecticut said it received $6.8 million in Byrne JAG funds from fiscal 2022 through 2025.

The states argue the conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause because civil immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, not a state one, and DOJ has no authority to attach conditions Congress did not authorize to money Congress already appropriated. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport called it "an outrageous maneuver that uses our dedicated law enforcement personnel as pawns in a political game." Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the conditions are "an insult to survivors and victims of crime, and to our police and prosecutors."

The states say DOJ used the identical tactic in 2025, declaring that states could not access more than $1.3 billion in Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds unless they cooperated with the administration's immigration-enforcement priorities; an earlier multistate lawsuit forced DOJ to remove those conditions and release the funds. This year, the states say, DOJ has applied the same conditions to a different set of public-safety grant programs. The states are asking the court to declare the new conditions unlawful and permanently block DOJ from enforcing or implementing them.