US President Donald Trump sits during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on March 13, 2025. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images).
Five major cities in states across the country are suing the Trump administration over the “unlawful” freezing of federal funds that are supposed to help shield metropolitan areas from terrorist and nuclear attacks, saying the government has “unconstitutionally usurped Congress’s authority” and “violated the Constitution’s separation of powers” by withholding millions from them.
“DHS’s funding freeze is … already impairing plaintiffs’ ability to protect public safety,” the cities allege in an amended complaint filed Monday in Illinois, where lawyers for the city of Chicago sparked the legal fight last month after the Department of Homeland Security announced its funding pause on May 14.
Attorneys for San Francisco, Denver, Boston and Seattle joined forces with the Windy City this week — claiming their cities are also suffering from similar public safety issues and concerns related to the freeze, at a time when they say it’s needed most.
“On information and belief, DHS’s inaction is part of a programmatic freeze of Securing the Cities funding,” the complaint charges. “Plaintiffs have told vendors to stop work on vital equipment and have canceled training designed to protect against terrorist attacks.”
The cities allege that Trump has cut off “Securing the Cities” program funds that have been used to buy “equipment designed to detect nuclear and other radiological materials that could be used to commit terrorist attacks” and train employees how to use it.
They employ “equipment and personnel” funded by the program to conduct security sweeps at athletic events, concerts, parades, political rallies, and other major events, according to the complaint, including rallies held by Donald Trump when he was a presidential candidate, the upcoming 2026 Super Bowl in San Francisco, and FIFA World Cup 26 matches in Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle.
“All that changed in recent months,” the new complaint says. “Since February 21, 2025, plaintiffs have submitted 11 requests to reimburse plaintiffs for expenditures that DHS had already approved,” it alleges. “DHS has effectively ignored plaintiffs’ requests while holding open the possibility that DHS may someday reimburse plaintiffs.”
The cities say federal employees have offered up responses and explanations for why the funding inquiries are being ignored. One government worker allegedly told San Francisco there was a “pause” on disbursements and said, “I have no information on when you can expect the payment,” according to the complaint.
The amended filing notes how between 2012 and 2017, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office added the cities of Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., regions to Securing the Cities because the office had deemed them to be “high-risk” areas. Boston, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle were later added.
In 2018, Congress passed the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, which required DHS to “establish” Securing the Cities funding for those cities and several others “to enhance the ability” of the United States to detect and prevent terrorist attacks and other “high-consequence events.”
The cities suing Trump DHS say with the funding freeze in place, they are being forced to put safety and defense operations related to stopping these threats on the back burner.
Boston, for instance, has had to delay buying “crucial nuclear and radiological detection equipment” for its fire department, according to the complaint; Chicago has deferred renewing a license for software used to operate radiation detection devices stopped work on a camera system used to detect radiation sources; San Francisco has paused the procurement process for mobile radiation detectors designed to identify unauthorized radiological material that “could severely harm the public”; Seattle was “forced” to pause purchases of 1,000 “state-of-the-art” personal radiation detectors; Denver cannot install a $263,000 “mobile-security unit” designed to monitor events for public safety risks, leading to the unit being left in storage “when it needs to be in the field,” according to the complaint.
“The Securing the Cities grant allows jurisdictions across the country to prevent terrorist and nuclear attacks, yet the Trump Administration illegally yanked this funding with no explanation,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in a statement Monday. “Keeping our communities safe is our City’s top priority, and it should be the top priority of the Trump Administration as well.”
