But while Mr. Trump’s position was broad and biting, it was unclear just how extensive any funding cuts could be. In the current fiscal year, New York City expects to receive $8.8 billion in federal funding for a variety of programs, including education and transportation, to fill out its $84.8 billion annual budget. But the administration’s ability to turn off the federal funds is limited, legal advisers to Mr. de Blasio said.
According to Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, the federal grants that might be vulnerable include $9 million from the Department of Justice and $156 million from the Department of Homeland Security. But because that money is for counterterrorism efforts, it would seem unlikely that it would be cut.
“The rhetoric doesn’t match the legal authority,” said Peter L. Markowitz, the director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “In fact, t
he president has very limited power to exercise any kind of significant defunding.”
According to a 2012 Supreme Court decision, Mr. Markowitz said, Congress is not permitted to set conditions on spending to coerce states or localities to participate in a federal program against their will. Any conditions, at a minimum, must be directly related to the punitive action. In other words, Mr. Markowitz said: “You can’t say ‘if you don’t use your police officers to go after unauthorized immigrants, you don’t get any money for your hospitals.’ T
hey can’t impose conditions that are totally unrelated.”
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