Shapiro joins lawsuit challenging election, immigration conditions on federal grants

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the congressionally appropriated grants, would withhold up to 20% of the program funding unless states agree to those and other demands. For Pennsylvania, that amounts to nearly $6 million, according to Shapiro’s office.

“The Trump Administration is holding critical funding for homeland security and disaster response hostage in their latest attempt to take over our elections and perpetuate baseless conspiracy theories,” Shapiro said in a statement Thursday.

“Withholding this funding will make our communities less safe and would be dangerous under any circumstance, but doing this in an attempt to undermine states’ authority over elections is reckless and unconstitutional,” Shapiro added.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

The lawsuit, led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, was filed in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island. It names as defendants the DHS, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and interim Administrator Robert Fenton.

DHS officials did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Shapiro noted that the suit is not the first time his administration has challenged an effort to condition Homeland Security funding on states’ cooperation with the Trump administration. In 2025, he joined a lawsuit that succeeded in reversing immigration-related conditions on DHS and FEMA funding.

The suit filed Thursday also challenges the Trump administration’s attempt to reinstate the immigration requirements that Shapiro’s office called “nearly identical” to those previously struck down. It said the requirements, if allowed to remain in place, would force states to divert crucial resources to doing the federal government’s job in immigration enforcement to get homeland security or other emergency management grant programs. 

The Trump administration wants states to use DHS’s powerful SAVE computer system to verify the citizenship of every voter. The demands are illegal or unworkable under federal court rulings or state law, federal lawmakers said in opposition to the demands.

DHS sent notices to the states earlier this year with guidelines on how to request funding under the counterterrorism Homeland Security Grant Program that include the election administration requirements.

Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said notices included “blatant attempts to force communities to comply with the Trump administration’s political demands” or lose their funding.

The Homeland Security Grant Program provides resources for state and local agencies to train public safety personnel in incident management, threat detection, and emergency response procedures; purchase equipment to respond to chemical and biological incidents; and upkeep of communications systems and public messaging platforms, Shapiro’s office said.