Overview

• U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued a permanent injunction requiring DHS and FEMA to award $33,898,500 under the Transit Security Grant Program to the MTA.
• Kaplan called the withholding of the funds "arbitrary, capricious, and a blatant violation of the law," citing statutes that require grants be based solely on terrorism risk.
• A FEMA filing acknowledged the MTA was denied because it is based in New York City, described as a "Sanctuary Jurisdiction," rather than due to a risk assessment.
• The restored funding supports targeted counterterror patrols, canine explosive-detection units, undercover teams, surveillance systems, cybersecurity, and weapons detection across the transit network.
• The decision follows earlier temporary orders and comes after a separate White House reversal restored $187 million in other counterterror grants to New York, further limiting the use of immigration criteria in risk-based awards.