State of California et al. v. U.S. Department of Transportation

Sanctuary Information

State of California et al. v. U.S. Department of Transportation

States challenged the “Duffy Directive/Letter” (dated April 24, 2025) that says all Department of Transportation (DOT) grant recipients require cooperation with federal immigration enforcement or risk losing their funding.

On June 19, 2025, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of the DOT directive.

On July 8, 2025, more states joined the lawsuit and amended their complaint.

On November 4, 2025, the federal court issued a permanent injunction and granted the states summary judgment. The DOT is ordered to remove all the funding conditions requiring cooperation with federal immigration enforcement from all future agreements and issue a notice to grant recipients that they will not condition their funding on federal immigration enforcement cooperation.

Sanctuary Topics
Federal Litigation