BIG ZERO: Trump Stiffs MTA in ‘Sanctuary City’ Tantrum

More like the Department of Homeland Insecurity.

The federal government will deny the MTA tens of millions of dollars in requested security grant funding, withholding every dollar the agency asked for because New York City and New York state are “sanctuary jurisdictions,” Streetsblog has learned.

DHS’s absolute denial of the money the MTA asked for under the Transit Security Grant Program, which pays for security upgrades across the system and not just in New York City, has left law enforcement officials stunned.

“This is ‘Defund the Police,’ MAGA-style,” one law enforcement source fumed to Streetsblog.

The decision to block funding to the MTA is a clear provocation by the Trump administration, according to Attorney General Letitia James, because the MTA is the only agency that was denied funding — and the denial was explicitly about New York’s sanctuary city policy.

“The New York Attorney General’s office received a Power-Point presentation that … identifies the MTA as the only applicant for TSGP funding that was denied, while other applicants received greater than originally allocated awards,” James argued in seeking to block the funding cut in a court filing that cited Streetsblog’s coverage.

“It further states that MTA did not receive their [sic] award ‘because it is based in a Sanctuary Jurisdiction city.'”

The MTA has been a regular recipient of Transit Security Grant Program funds since the grant was created in 2005, receiving $19.8 million from it last year also, according to a letter that the agency sent to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this year.

Some $10 million of the grant went to the subway and bus system to pay for police patrols, bag screening, training canine units and cybersecurity, with the rest of the money spent on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, the MTA said.

The Trump administration has targeted so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” as part of its brutal immigration crackdown. In July, DHS touted a 400-percent increase in ICE arrests in the Big Apple since Trump took office. An agency release at the time specifically dinged New York for its sanctuary policies. The Justice Department included both the city and state on its official sanctuary jurisdiction list released last month.

Homeland Security’s decision to withhold public safety funds from the Empire State would seem to contradict Duffy and Federal Transit Administrator Marc Molinaro‘s focus on reducing crime on mass transit in New York and elsewhere. MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber spoke directly to that issue in his comments on the grant denial.

“We hear a lot from Washington about, oh, the safety of the cities,” said Lieber. “We hear a lot from Washington about, oh, the subways need to be safer. This is the money that Washington provides that goes to us, and even more, to the NYPD for their subway patrols. So to me, it’s unthinkable that Washington could be considering cutting transit security grants.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul also criticized the federal government for caterwauling about crime and then specifically cutting funding that’s supposed to fight it.

“Keeping New Yorkers safe on our streets and our subways is my highest priority,” Hochul said in a statement to Streetsblog. “New York has made historic investments in subway safety and reduced transit crime to the lowest levels in a generation. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington are defunding transit safety, putting millions of daily riders at risk and ripping away critical counterterrorism resources for our transit system. Republicans must answer: why are they playing political games with New Yorkers’ safety?”

DHS did respond to a request for comment.

This story was updated at 10 a.m. on Oct. 1 to include Attorney General Letitia James’s involvement.