Twenty Democratic-led states filed two lawsuits on Tuesday seeking to stop the Trump administration from forcing states to co-operate with immigration enforcement or withholding billions of dollars in funding for special projects for transportation construction, counter-terrorism and emergency preparedness. The states, in a complaint filed in federal court in Rhode Island, allege that federal funds are being illegally used by the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security to coerce states into complying with Mr. Trump's hard-line immigration policies. Rob Bonta, the Democratic attorney general of California who is leading the lawsuit, denounced Mr. Trump's "flagrant violation" of the law by threatening states to cancel federal funding for road improvements and emergency preparedness if they do not use local resources to support immigration enforcement. " He is using these funds that have nothing to do with immigration enforcement but are about community safety as political leverage, "Bonta said in a statement. States accuse the federal government of unconstitutionally usurping Congress' spending power by attaching immigration enforcement conditions to funding.