Denver joined Chicago in a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration over decisions not to pay the cities millions in promised grant dollars to help cover the cost of sheltering migrants.
The lawsuit comes after the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Denver in April that it would no longer pay the city about $24 million remaining from a larger grant. The city already spent that money during the migrant crisis and was expecting a reimbursement, officials said, but the Trump administration in recent months has threatened to withhold federal money from cities seen as supportive of undocumented immigrants.
Chicago, which received a similar notification, filed the joint lawsuit challenging the grant clawbacks on Friday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The lawsuit, which is against the Department of Homeland Security, argues the actions are unconstitutional and an overreach of the executive branch, according to a news release from the city of Denver. Denver and Pima County, Arizona, are both joining in the suit.
“It’s a clear violation of the separation of powers,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in an interview Friday. “Congress failed to solve federal immigration reform, but they did allocate dollars to this project for exactly this purpose — and now he’s trying to rescind that. That’s a violation of Congress’ power.”
Johnston said he expects a judge to rule in favor of the city.
“This would be like the city suffering a hurricane or a flood and starting to provide services with the promise that FEMA would reimburse, and then — a year later — suddenly a new president decides they don’t think that flood was worthy of reimbursement,” he said.
The money in question was assigned through the Shelters and Services Program, which Congress authorizes. It’s intended to support entities that are sheltering “noncitizen aliens following their release from the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the program’s website.
Denver used the money to temporarily shelter an influx of about 43,000 migrants who arrived in the city between late 2022 and 2024, including many sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The $24 million was one part of $32 million in promised grants. The city already received about $8 million. City officials had not factored the money into their 2025 budget, since the grants often take years to be fulfilled, but it would impact the city’s budget long term, city spokesperson Jon Ewing said.
“Denver responded to this crisis — that we neither created nor asked for — to prevent thousands of families from living on our streets in the cold, maintain public safety, and ensure the city continued to run smoothly,” according to the news release.
This is now the second lawsuit between Denver and the Trump administration. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Denver and Colorado over their so-called “sanctuary city” policies, which restrict how much local law enforcement can work with immigration officials.
Since his inauguration in January, Trump and congressional Republicans have focused on a few states and cities for these policies, threatening to rescind federal grants and even criminally prosecute some people. Based on established legal standards and court rulings, experts recently told The Denver Post, those cases are unlikely to be successful.
Earlier this week, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined two separate lawsuits with 19 other states against the Trump administration over threats to withhold grant funding. One is against FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem, and the other is against U.S. Department of Transportation and Secretary Sean Duffy. Those lawsuits make similar arguments.
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