DENVER 7
Óscar Contreras
May 23, 2025
Denver and dozens of other cities on Friday announced they were suing the Trump administration over threats to withhold millions of dollars in federal grant money earmarked for critical transportation infrastructure for not aligning with the president’s directives on immigration enforcement or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges a memo issued by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy back in April was “illegal and coercive” in that it ignored the role of Congress in enacting policy and appropriating those federal funds. It also argues the directives issued by the Trump administration “have nothing to do with the substance of the grants in question, and potentially jeopardize hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in Denver and billions of dollars across the country.”
