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Attorney General Jones Files Lawsuit Against Trump Administration’s Unlawful Conditions for Counterterrorism and Emergency Funding

New conditions would require states to share voter data with the Department of Homeland Security

RICHMOND, Va. – Attorney General Jay Jones joined a coalition of 26 states to stop the Trump administration’s continued efforts to use federal funds—specifically, billions of dollars in federal counterterrorism and other emergency funds—to coerce states into complying with the administration’s political agenda. Part of this change requires states to transmit lists of all registered voters to The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and to assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law.

“Critical funding for emergencies and counterterrorism efforts is not a bargaining chip, and Virginia will not be threatened or bullied into sharing sensitive voter data with the federal government,” said Attorney General Jones. “Donald Trump knows that the People will hold him accountable at the ballot box less than four months from now, so he is doing everything in his power to undermine voters before they get to the ballot box. With these funding conditions, he’s prioritizing his partisan agenda over the health and safety of those he serves. We will not let this stand.”

DHS and FEMA have established grant conditions for 2026 funding that again attempt to coerce the states into complying with the administration’s policy priorities. The conditions in total affect billions of dollars in funding, including over a billion dollars in Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding that states use to support security measures and protect residents from terrorism, cyberattacks and more. In 2023, more than $8.7 million were allocated through various federal grant programs to enhance emergency preparedness and security throughout the Commonwealth.

First, DHS and FEMA have again threatened to impose the same immigration conditions that they attempted to impose in 2025 on all federal grant programs. The conditions would require states to devote scarce law-enforcement resources to assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. These conditions were found to be unlawful and were enjoined by a district judge last year.

Second, DHS and FEMA threaten to withhold 20% of each state’s counterterrorism funding if states do not change state election law to conform to the administration’s policy goals. The attorneys general assert that these requirements would force states to abandon years of work and millions of dollars of investments in their elections systems, all to obtain unrelated funding that Congress earmarked for the prevention of terrorist attacks.

Specifically, the challenged funding conditions would require states to transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct a mandatory 5% manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters and ballots using a methodology DHS has not disclosed, and use DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to verify the citizenship of every election worker and every registered voter in state’s voter databases. If states do not comply, DHS and FEMA will withhold at least 20% of each state’s HSGP funding.

Finally, the challenged funding conditions unlawfully claim effectively unfettered power to terminate these grants on a whim. The agencies are attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. This constant threat of termination undermines the stability and reliability that these critical programs rely on to be effective.

The attorney’s general argue in this lawsuit that the grant conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause.

Joining Attorney General Jones in filing the lawsuit are attorneys general of California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Published on: July 27, 2026

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