New York Attorney General Letitia James has welcomed a court’s decision temporarily blocking President Trump from withholding trillions of dollars in funding that every state in the country relies on to provide essential services to millions of Americans, including Caribbean immigrants.
The US District Court for the District of Rhode Island on Friday granted James and the coalition of 22 attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order, halting the implementation of the administration’s policy.
This temporary restraining order extends beyond the Jan. 28 administrative stay granted by the US District Court for the District of Columbia in response to a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups that receive federal funds.
The proposed policy, as initially articulated by the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday, would put an indefinite pause on the majority of federal assistance, jeopardizing funds for health care, education, law enforcement, disaster relief, infrastructure, and more.
On Tuesday, Attorney General James and attorneys general from 22 other states sued to immediately stop the enforcement of this policy and preserve trillions of dollars in essential funding.
“This administration’s reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion and conflict throughout our country,” said James, who led the coalition. “In the short time since this policy was announced, families have been cut off from childcare services, essential Medicaid funds were disrupted, and critical law enforcement efforts were put in jeopardy.
“I led a coalition of attorneys general in suing to stop this cruel policy, and today we won a court order to stop it,” she added. “The president cannot unilaterally halt congressional spending commitments.
“I will continue to fight against these illegal cuts and protect essential services that New Yorkers and millions of Americans across the country depend on,” James continued.
But she said while the Trump administration has rescinded the memo announcing the policy, states and organizations that receive federal funding continue to be at risk for major disruptions.
Following the first announcement of the policy, James said Medicaid funds in New York and multiple other states were frozen, and Head Start programs across the country were cut off from funds, leading some childcare centers to close.
“The chaos continues,” the New York Attorney General said.
The lawsuit was led by James and the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
Joining the lawsuit were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke had also strongly condemned as “unconstitutional suspension of Congressionally-approved domestic and international grant funding.
“Today, we have witnessed Donald Trump order one of the most transparently unconstitutional actions ever before taken by an American president – an illegal decision that was openly and proudly written by the authors of Project 2025, Donald Trump’s step-by-step manifesto to destroy American democracy,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told Caribbean Life on Tuesday.
“Make no mistake, today’s action represents a significant step towards achieving that goal,” added the representative for the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn. “Through his illegal decision to suspend federal funding, we will see nonprofits doing essential humanitarian work collapse. We will see small businesses in communities across the country close their doors. We will see seniors and children miss meals and go hungry, we will see our international allies like Haiti be struck with irreparable instability, and we will see our nation’s most vulnerable lose the safety nets they need to survive.
“Because of the president’s decision, we will see pain – and, unfortunately, that is the point,” Clarke continued. “Every day and with every action, our aspiring dictator-in-chief steals more and more power from the people and the Constitution to centralize within himself and his oligarch buddies.”
The congresswoman warned that Trump’s overreach will not be limited to Caribbean and other immigrant communities, or Democratic voters, “or the many groups Donald Trump has sicced hatred on over his career.”
She said this decision “will harm Americans in every corner of this nation, including the president’s supporters.
“I say that with full knowledge of the White House’s latest memo that purports to clarify which funds will and will not be impacted – a document not worth the paper it was printed on,” said Clarke, stating that while the White House’s memo claims Medicaid will not be affected, “yet Medicaid systems remain affected across the country.”
