Connect with us

New York

When It Comes to D.E.I. and ICE, Trump Is Using Federal Grants as Leverage

Published

on

When It Comes to D.E.I. and ICE, Trump Is Using Federal Grants as Leverage

During President Trump’s first months in office, officials in his administration have used the threat of withholding federal funding to bend institutions and municipalities to their ideological will.

That strategy shows no signs of abating.

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing billions of dollars in grants for cities and states to make sure recipients comply with Mr. Trump’s priorities on immigration enforcement and diversity programs.

Now grant beneficiaries must “honor requests for cooperation, such as participation in joint operations, sharing of information or requests for short-term detention of an alien pursuant to a valid detainer,” according to the terms and conditions for grants distributed by the department.

The terms and conditions, which were first released last October and quietly updated in late March, also mandate that those who receive grants “will provide access to detainees, such as when an immigration officer seeks to interview a person who might be a removable alien.”

Advertisement

“I see it as the beginning of the reshaping of our national emergency management infrastructure,” said Mark Ghilarducci, who previously served as California’s state emergency services director. “Now it will be based upon ideology versus what is the actual need.”

The changes likely imperil tens of billions of dollars in grants to states and cities that have rules limiting cooperation with officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said.

The review of the federal grants is the latest reminder that Mr. Trump does not view federal funding to bolster police departments or help communities recover from disasters as support that comes without strings attached. Instead, he uses federal grants as leverage against state and local governments to ensure compliance with his political agenda.

One criterion is whether certain locales are sanctuary jurisdictions, which broadly refers to cities and counties that block their local jails from cooperating with federal immigration officials.

ICE prefers to pick up undocumented immigrants from local lockups, but in order to do so, it needs collaboration from county sheriffs. In some cities and counties, this collaboration is outright blocked or severely limited.

Advertisement

Peter Gaynor, who served as FEMA administrator and briefly as acting U.S. secretary of homeland security during Mr. Trump’s first term, saw these changes as in line with the priorities the president has set out.

“This is the way they are going to operate,” Mr. Gaynor said. “The administration is going to, from time to time, check you to make sure that you’re compliant with the federal grant guidance.”

“You don’t have to accept the money,” he added. “You can decline the money. I think that’s part of the formula here.”

California and some of its cities and counties have laws against cooperating with ICE. Now local governments and community organizations are at risk of losing billions of dollars because of the change in D.H.S. policy, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.

The department normally provides grants that support a variety of public safety services, including police, fire and emergency response as well as programs to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault.

Advertisement

“These are grants that are critical to prepare for the next disaster and help keep communities safe,” Mr. Ferguson said.

It is unknown exactly how much money is at risk in California or which cities, counties or community groups may lose grants, he said.

“Like much of the work that’s happening at the federal level, we’re working to understand what exactly it means on an implementation level,” Mr. Ferguson said.

Officials in New York and other states expressed similar fears and uncertainty. The office of Attorney General Letitia James of New York was aware of the updated guidance and reviewing it. Like in California, billions of dollars in grants could be on the chopping block.

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency have already identified nearly $1 billion in funding they think should be cut and another almost $4 billion that is being reviewed, according to a memo reviewed by The New York Times.

Advertisement

Some funding — like $80 million from FEMA to New York City for migrant shelters — was clawed back this winter. The money for these beds came from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. Now federal officials want to cancel about $887 million in grants from that program.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, “has directed FEMA to implement additional controls to ensure that all grant money going out is consistent with law and does not go to fraud, waste or abuse.”

“The open borders gravy train is over, and there will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people,” Ms. McLaughlin added.

Another program under review involves nearly $2 billion in grants to law enforcement agencies, cities and states to help themselves prepare and respond to terrorist attacks. In the fiscal year ending in October, entities in New York received close to $320 million from this program.

Avi Small, the press secretary for Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, pointed out in a statement that “the federal government has issued multiple orders, directives and guidance that were later overturned in court or rescinded by the administration.”

Advertisement

“We have received this guidance, which could have significant fiscal impacts for disaster relief and other critical state functions, and are assessing our options moving forward,” he added.

Last week, the New York State Education Department said it would not go along with the Trump administration’s threats to pull federal funding from public schools over certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The updated terms and conditions from D.H.S. for grantees includes new requirements in this area as well.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, his administration fought in court to withhold millions of dollars from law enforcement agencies in states and cities that did not cooperate with his immigration agenda. A federal judge ultimately overturned the executive order issued by Mr. Trump that withheld federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions.

After wildfires erupted in California in 2018, Mr. Trump said on social media that he had ordered FEMA to “send no more money” unless the state changed its approach to forest management.

Mr. Trump has threatened on multiple occasions to withhold money from California, including earlier this year as parts of Los Angeles were ravaged by wildfires. He said that he would help but that he first wanted the state to impose voter identification laws and change its environmental policies.

Advertisement

On Friday, Trump officials were admonished by a federal judge for not complying with an order the judge had issued in early March to unfreeze billions in FEMA funds in at least 19 states. The Times reported last month that freezing of funds had caused chaos for state, local and nonprofits officials who were trying to respond to natural disasters.

Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the Federal District Court in Rhode Island said on Friday that he thought the funding hold was a “covert” means to punish places with laws that prohibit cooperation with immigration officials.

“Trump has declared war against the American economy and our allies around the world,” said Jason Elliott, who previously served as Mr. Newsom’s deputy chief of staff. “Now American states, with millions of people who voted for him, are the target of his war against common sense.

“His funding threats against states, for nothing but political purposes, will directly harm millions of red voters in those purple and blue states.”

Laurel Rosenhall contributed reporting from Sacramento.

Advertisement

New York

They Witness Deaths on the Tracks and Then Struggle to Get Help

Published

on

They Witness Deaths on the Tracks and Then Struggle to Get Help

‘Part of the job’

Edwin Guity was at the controls of a southbound D train last December, rolling through the Bronx, when suddenly someone was on the tracks in front of him.

Advertisement

He jammed on the emergency brake, but it was too late. The man had gone under the wheels.

Stumbling over words, Mr. Guity radioed the dispatcher and then did what the rules require of every train operator involved in such an incident. He got out of the cab and went looking for the person he had struck.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Guity said later. “But this is a part of the job.”

Advertisement

He found the man pinned beneath the third car. Paramedics pulled him out, but the man died at the hospital. After that, Mr. Guity wrestled with what to do next.

A 32-year-old who had once lived in a family shelter with his parents, he viewed the job as paying well and offering a rare chance at upward mobility. It also helped cover the costs of his family’s groceries and rent in the three-bedroom apartment they shared in Brooklyn.

Advertisement

But striking the man with the train had shaken him more than perhaps any other experience in his life, and the idea of returning to work left him feeling paralyzed.

Edwin Guity was prescribed exposure therapy after his train struck a man on the tracks.

Advertisement

Hundreds of train operators have found themselves in Mr. Guity’s position over the years.

And for just as long, there has been a path through the state workers’ compensation program to receiving substantive treatment to help them cope. But New York’s train operators say that their employer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has done too little to make them aware of that option.

Advertisement

After Mr. Guity’s incident, no official told him of that type of assistance, he said. Instead, they gave him the option of going back to work right away.

But Mr. Guity was lucky. He had a friend who had been through the same experience and who coached him on getting help — first through a six-week program and then, with the assistance of a lawyer, through an experienced specialist.

The specialist prescribed a six-month exposure therapy program to gradually reintroduce Mr. Guity to the subway.

Advertisement

His first day back at the controls of a passenger train was on Thanksgiving. Once again, he was driving on the D line — the same route he had been traveling on the day of the fatal accident.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Mr. Guity helps care for his 93-year-old grandmother, Juanita Guity.

M.T.A. representatives insisted that New York train operators involved in strikes are made aware of all options for getting treatment, but they declined to answer specific questions about how the agency ensures that drivers get the help they need.

Advertisement

In an interview, the president of the M.T.A. division that runs the subway, Demetrius Crichlow, said all train operators are fully briefed on the resources available to them during their job orientation.

“I really have faith in our process,” Mr. Crichlow said.

Advertisement

Still, other transit systems — all of which are smaller than New York’s — appear to do a better job of ensuring that operators like Mr. Guity take advantage of the services available to them, according to records and interviews.

Advertisement

An Uptick in Subway Strikes

A Times analysis shows that the incidents were on the rise in New York City’s system even as they were falling in all other American transit systems.

Advertisement

Source: Federal Transit Administration.

Note: Transit agencies report “Major Safety and Security Events” to the F.T.A.’s National Transit Database. The Times’s counts include incidents categorized as rail collisions with persons, plus assaults, homicides and attempted suicides with event descriptions mentioning a train strike. For assaults, The Times used an artificial intelligence model to identify relevant descriptions and then manually reviewed the results.

Bianca Pallaro/The New York Times

Advertisement

San Francisco’s system provides 24-hour access to licensed therapists through a third-party provider.

Los Angeles proactively reaches out to its operators on a regular basis to remind them of workers’ compensation options and other resources.

Advertisement

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has made it a goal to increase engagement with its employee assistance program.

The M.T.A. says it offers some version of most of these services.

But in interviews with more than two dozen subway operators who have been involved in train strikes, only one said he was aware of all those resources, and state records suggest most drivers of trains that strike people are not taking full advantage of them.

Advertisement

“It’s the M.T.A.’s responsibility to assist the employee both mentally and physically after these horrific events occur,” the president of the union that represents New York City transit workers, John V. Chiarello, said in a statement, “but it is a constant struggle trying to get the M.T.A. to do the right thing.”

Continue Reading

New York

Video: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid

Published

on

Video: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid

new video loaded: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid

transcript

transcript

Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid

Nearly 200 protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving a parking garage in Lower Manhattan on Saturday. The confrontation appeared to prevent a possible ICE raid nearby, and led to violent clashes between the police and protesters.

[chanting] “ICE out of New York.”

Advertisement
Nearly 200 protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving a parking garage in Lower Manhattan on Saturday. The confrontation appeared to prevent a possible ICE raid nearby, and led to violent clashes between the police and protesters.

By Jorge Mitssunaga

November 30, 2025

Continue Reading

New York

Video: New York City’s Next Super Storm

Published

on

Video: New York City’s Next Super Storm

new video loaded: New York City’s Next Super Storm

What’s a worst-case scenario for hurricane flooding in New York City? Our reporter Hilary Howard, who covers the environment in the region, explores how bad it could get as climate change powers increasingly extreme rainfall and devastating storm surges.

By Hilary Howard, Gabriel Blanco, Stephanie Swart and K.K. Rebecca Lai

November 26, 2025

Continue Reading

Trending