The Trump administration can't withhold disaster relief
December 24, 2025
AI Summary
5 min readA federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in homeland security grants to a dozen states and the District of Columbia, ruling that the administration had illegally withheld the money from jurisdictions it labeled "sanctuary" cities.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with attorneys general from Illinois and several other states. The judge found that the Department of Homeland Security had no clear formula for how it reallocated the funding, and that the plaintiff states had been "obviously and deliberately targeted" for cuts. The affected money came from the Homeland Security Grant Program, which is supposed to support local police, emergency response training, and urban area planning. New York alone had lost $100 million from the program. The judge ordered DHS to restore more than $200 million in grants, ruling that the money must be distributed based on the threat level local jurisdictions face, not their political standing with the White House. DHS said it plans to fight the order.
H1B visa fee ruling
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:03) **Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore disaster relief funding** - A federal judge ruled the administration must restore Homeland Security grant funding to 12 states and D.C. that had been withheld from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions.
- 2 (02:23) **Judge upholds $100,000 fee on H-1B work visas** - A federal judge ruled the president has the authority to impose the fee, part of the administration's effort to reduce immigration.
- 3 (02:47) **BP sells Castrol lubricant business for $6 billion** - The sale is part of BP's effort to raise money to lower debt and increase oil and gas production, reversing an earlier pivot toward renewables.
- 4 (04:36) **Millions may lose SNAP benefits as major changes loom** - Weeks after the government shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program faces major changes, and the USDA has signaled it could withhold funding from states that refuse to share recipient immigration statuses.
- 5 (05:11) **Interview: Feeding America Kentucky's Heartland on rising demand** - Executive Director Charles Dennis describes how the government shutdown and uncertainty have driven up demand, with some agencies seeing twice as many people as the year before.
- 6 Standout Quotes
- 7 (07:18) "In the month of November in the forty two counties that we serve, there should have been $20.5 million that went in for SNAP benefits for one month. My yearly cash budget is six million dollars. So... we can't make up that difference unless we have a lot more resources." — Charles Dennis, Feeding America Kentucky's Heartland
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Show Notes
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore Homeland Security funding to 12 states and the District of Columbia. The administration had held back hundreds of millions of dollars from what it called "sanctuary jurisdictions." The cuts affected programs intended to support local police and emergency response in urban areas. Plus, food banks are bracing for strain ahead of changes to SNAP. We hear how services will be impacted on the ground in Kentucky.
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