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Trump administration suddenly cuts millions in Mass. public safety funding
A number of states unwilling to allocate resources for immigration enforcement lost funding meant for fighting terrorism and preparing for emergencies.
The Trump administration abruptly cut nearly $7 million in public safety funding from Massachusetts, diverting the money to other states that are more willing to help enforce federal immigration law.
Ten other states and Washington, D.C. were similarly affected. Attorney General Andrea Campbell joined with her counterparts in those states to sue officials within the Trump administration, accusing them of illegally withholding the funding.
“We will fight the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to strong-arm states into complying with its cruel immigration agenda by depriving them of lifesaving funding that helps prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies,” Campbell said in a statement.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency allocates about $1 billion each year through its largest grant program, which is meant to give states resources to fight terrorism. The 11 affected states and the District of Columbia received only $226 million in total, a decrease of 51% from the amount that FEMA previously said it would provide.
The funding cuts came without notice or explanation, state officials said. Massachusetts lost $6.9 million, a 31% reduction in funds. This could derail emergency preparedness throughout the state, according to the governor’s office.
The Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which coordinates information sharing among law enforcement agencies, will be impacted. Other programs that provide protective equipment, advanced training, and active shooter response drills are also expected to lose funding. In the past, the state has used these grant funds to pay for things like “rapid deployment robots and situational awareness drones” for firefighters, mobile operations equipment for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, and diving gear for the State Police Marine Unit.
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“President Trump and Secretary Noem just made every community in Massachusetts and in states across the country less safe. Our cities and towns use this grant funding to keep their residents safe from threats and support law enforcement,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Just last week, Campbell and a group of other attorneys general successfully sued the government over a series of “terms and conditions” the Trump administration placed on emergency preparedness funds. A federal judge ordered the administration to not enforce those conditions.
But the federal government “took yet another lawless action” by simply cutting the funding to these states “dramatically” and reallocating it to “more favored jurisdictions,” the attorneys general wrote in their most recent lawsuit.
“President Trump is playing politics with our public safety, and he’s using these funding cuts to punish those who disagree with him,” Healey said. “He needs to restore the funding that we are owed.”
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