The Trump administration cannot withhold disaster relief from Marketplace.

I'm Sabri Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore homeland security funding

to 12 states and the District of Columbia.

The administration had held back hundreds of millions of dollars from what it called sanctuary jurisdictions.

Marketplaces Nova Sappho has more.

A Trump appointed federal judge said the reallocation of counterterrorism and disaster response funding, which happened in September, was arbitrary and capricious.

The cuts affected programs intended to support local police and emergency response

training and planning in urban areas. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state had lost

$100 million in funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program. James, along with attorneys

general from Illinois and several other states, sued to restore the funding. The presiding federal judge ordered DHS to give back more than $200 million in grants

because they are supposed to be handed out based on the amount of threat local jurisdictions face,

not their standing with the White House.

The judge pointed out that the administration had no clear formula for how it had come up with the

reallocations and that the plaintiff states had been, quote, obviously and deliberately

targeted for funding cuts. Responding to the ruling, DHS said it planned to fight the order.

I'm Novosafo for Marketplace. On another legal front, a federal judge has ruled that Trump

administration can impose a $100,000 fee on new work visas, known as H-1Bs, part of the administration's campaign to reduce immigration in general.

The judge said the president does have this power because Congress granted it decades ago.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had sued to block the fee and could still appeal.

There are also other ongoing legal challenges to the fee.

British Petroleum is selling its lubricant business.

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