Washington is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over the cancellation of congressionally approved funds to help shelter migrants with pending asylum or immigration cases.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, seeks to reinstate more than $4 million in funds awarded to the state to cover emergency food and shelter to noncitizen migrants after they are released from DHS custody.
The state is asking the court to declare the termination of the grant unlawful, and to order the federal agency to restore the state’s funding.
The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown has brought against the Trump administration, as it freezes millions in federal funding, dismantles government agencies and aims to revoke birthright citizenship. The state has already filed or joined more than 25 suits against the federal government since Trump's return to office.
The Friday complaint alleges the Trump administration has made clear its disdain for noncitizen migrants, especially those who entered without inspection and seek humanitarian protection in the United States."
"But Defendants’ policy preference, no matter how much of a priority it might be for them, cannot override the policy priorities that Congress has expressed through statute," the complaint stated.
Since 2019, under a law signed by President Donald Trump during his first term to relieve overcrowding at DHS facilities, Congress has funneled millions to states, cities and local nonprofits looking to support undocumented immigrants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency Shelter and Services Program.
The state argues the U.S. Department of Homeland Security violated the Constitution, which grants “the power of the purse” to Congress and not the president, when it terminated the grant.
"Defendants may disagree with Congress’ policy choice but that does not entitle them to ignore Congress’ clear funding command and their decision to terminate the Shelter and Services Program for that reason violates the Separation of Powers doctrine," the complaint stated.
Washington applied for the FEMA funding in June 2024 primarily to provide housing, food and medical care for the hundreds of asylum-seekers and other migrants that have been arriving in Tukwila since late 2022. The funding would have supported shelter and services for about 525 noncitizen migrants every day.
That application identified the city of Tukwila, Public Health - Seattle & King County and the nonprofit Mary’s Place Seattle as funding recipients, with additional organizations that could provide shelter and other essential services to be identified at a later date. FEMA awarded Washington more than $4 million in funds in September 2024.
But in April, before Washington could request payment under the award, the agency terminated the grant, according to the complaint.
The termination notice stated the funding was canceled because funding "non-federal entities to provide shelter, food, transportation, acute medical care, and personal hygiene supplies for individuals released from DHS short-term holding facilities … is not consistent with DHS’s current priorities,” according to the complaint.
“Once again, the Trump administration is breaking the law and ignoring Congress,” Brown said in a statement.
“Congress created a program to provide funding for shelter for migrants. But now the president has illegally yanked the funds, ignoring the separation of powers, simply because he doesn’t like the program.”
Hundreds of migrants — primarily from Angola, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo — have made their way to Riverton Park United Methodist Church in Tukwila in recent years, many seeking asylum.
Their arrival in Washington, more than a thousand miles away from the southern U.S. border, has bewildered local leaders and government officials, who have struggled to provide temporary housing and basic necessities to the migrants.
The number of noncitizen migrants settling in Washington after being processed and released by DHS climbed tenfold between 2022 and 2024, according to the suit, rising from about 4,150 to more than 45,600.
With the state's existing homeless response system already stretched thin, thousands have been forced to sleep on the church's floor or in tents set up in informal encampments.
The state approved $25 million in funding last year to support the wave of asylum-seekers, but "recognized that more was needed to ensure that the essential needs of its noncitizen migrant residents were met and sought out federal funding.
Washington agencies and nonprofits had already provided services that were supposed to be reimbursable under the reward when the grant was terminated, according to the complaint.
Without the federal funding, “there is likely to be an overall drop in the level of services provided to noncitizen migrants in Washington,” the complaint stated, with neither state nor local governments likely to fill the funding gap.
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