Storm-ravaged farmhouse in coastal Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to attach conditions to federal disaster assistance grants that require recipients to comply with federal immigration law, hampering the ability of states and localities to prepare for disasters.

In January, Trump issued Executive Order 14159 calling for DHS to “undertake any lawful actions to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a memorandum in February, directing sub-agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to scrutinize all federal financial assistance awards. The purpose was to identify funds allocated to sanctuary jurisdictions and to report on compliance within 30 days. By March, FEMA had added language to its grants requiring state and local recipients to confirm they’d help enforce federal immigration law or risk losing all federal funds administered by DHS.

The language contains six specific criteria.

1. Grant recipients must share information with DHS on the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of........

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