Chicago mayor sued Trump

By Jake Sheridan
Chicago Tribune

(Chicago Tribune) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration filed another lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump’s administration, this time in a bid to protect threatened emergency preparedness funding.

The city’s federal suit, filed Monday, alleges the Department of Homeland Security has tied long-standing funding that pays for cybersecurity tools, hazmat suits, first-responder salaries and more to “unlawful conditions” outlawing the city’s “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts.

Those conditions would require the city to certify that it does not operate “programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology,” according to grant guidelines implemented by DHS in April.

The amount at stake is relatively small, as Chicago could lose up to $10 million next year, according to Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza. But the city has pledged to draw a line against Trump attempts to target such equity standards, and leading the fight helps Johnson burnish his credentials as a bulwark against the federal government’s moves to cut funding to Democratic-led institutions.

Seven other cities and one county also joined the lawsuit, including New York, Boston, Denver and Baltimore. For Chicago, the lead plaintiff, the court action marks another clash between Trump and Johnson as the president’s efforts to ramp up deportations in the city continue.

The 70-page complaint accuses Trump of trying “to use this critical federal funding as a cudgel threatening to hamstring local governments’ emergency-management function unless they acquiesce to unrelated (Trump) domestic policy goals.”

Johnson said “Chicago will not stand by” while Trump “weaponizes emergency funding to attack our values,” in a news release announcing the lawsuit.

“Chicago will always uphold the importance of our diversity. Ensuring that all Chicagoans have an opportunity to succeed is not discrimination,” he wrote. “It’s just basic fairness.”

The Johnson administration said the federal government has shared such emergency response and disaster preparedness grants through DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for over 75 years. “Tens of millions tied to new grant awards” are in jeopardy because of the new rules, the release said.

Mendoza said the federal government has not yet withheld grants from the city, but added that Trump’s administration is attempting to enforce the new rules next year. The money Chicago could lose is part of a $100 million total for the signed cities, Mendoza said.

The complaint cited new “anti-discrimination” guidelines issued by DHS in April. Those guidelines also require grant recipients to certify that they will not “operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration.”

Johnson’s administration has repeatedly filed and joined lawsuits against Trump’s administration this year. Most recently, a lawsuit filed by the city and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul won a judge’s order halting Trump’s deployment of Illinois and Texas National Guard troops throughout the area. Trump’s administration argues the troops are needed to protect immigration agents and facilities.

Johnson promised in April to sue over Trump’s threats to revoke Chicago Public Schools federal funding over diversity programs. Later that month, the city joined a lawsuit against Trump in a bid to halt the firing of federal employees.

(Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner contributed to this story.)