To get funding to help victims of crime, states must buy into Trump's anti-immigrant agenda
According to the lawsuit, the Trump Administration,
disregarding the law and the intent of Congress, has declared that states will
be unable to access these funds – used to support victims and survivors of
crimes – unless they agree to support the Trump Administration’s extreme
immigration enforcement efforts.
“When the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is actively preventing Americans from receiving justice, we have a problem,” said Attorney General Neronha.
“We’ve seen this before: DOJ threatens to unlawfully withhold critical federal funding for disaster relief and safe roads and bridges. Now, the department tasked with ensuring justice for all is targeting victims and survivors as they attempt to navigate some of the most difficult times of their lives. And their supposed reasoning here is unfounded: Rhode Island consistently cooperates with all federal law enforcement agencies, as required by federal law. What we won’t, and can’t do legally, is divert important state law enforcement resources to do the federal government’s civil immigration law bidding.
“This Administration is hanging Americans out to dry; in
this case, American victims who are attempting to pick up the pieces of their
lives, bury their family members, and see to it that criminals responsible for
hurting them and their loved ones are held accountable. In this country, above
all else, we expect our government to protect us, and this latest move flies in
the face of that expectation. We can and must support crime victims, and
support must not be illegally tethered to federal policies. We are on the right
side of the law here, and we will prevail.”
VOCA was enacted in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, creating a series of grant programs to enable states to provide critical resources and services to victims and survivors of crime as they try to restore normalcy in their lives. Supported programs include victim and witness advocacy services, emergency shelter, medical, funeral, and burial expenses, crime scene cleanup, sexual assault forensic exams, and much more.
These funding streams, totaling more than a billion dollars a year nationwide, have long ensured that states could fulfill their most fundamental duties: protecting public safety and redressing harm to their residents. States use these funds to assist nearly nine million crime victims annually and to provide compensation for more than 200,000 victims’ claims annually.
Congress has required the distribution of
almost all VOCA funding to states based on fixed statutory formulas and has
repeatedly acted to ensure sufficient funding for crime victims, including
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
However, the Trump Administration, through the Department
of Justice (DOJ), has declared that states, along with the
victims and survivors they serve, will be blocked from these funds unless they
comply with the Administration’s political agenda – namely. its immigration
enforcement priorities. To receive these funds, states must assist the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with civil
immigration enforcement efforts – a federal government responsibility.
This directive conflicts with core principles of American
governance – the separation of powers and federalism. Congress did not
authorize the DOJ to impose conditions on these grant programs that coerce
states to devote their resources to enacting the Administration’s immigration
agenda. As such, Attorney General Neronha and the coalition request that the
Court permanently enjoin the Trump Administration from implementing or
enforcing these illegal conditions.
In Rhode Island, VOCA grants are the primary funding source for victim services. Most of that funding flows from VOCA’s two main grants: victim compensation grants, which provide direct financial support to crime victims, and victim assistance grants, which are almost entirely distributed to nonprofits throughout the state to provide additional support services to those impacted by crime.
For federal FY 2024, Rhode Island received nearly $3 million
in VOCA victim assistance funds and another almost $300K in VOCA victim
compensation funds. During that same time period, VOCA assistance funds were
used to provide services to approximately 41,015 individuals through dozens of
nonprofits, and 635 individuals received VOCA compensation payments through the
State’s Crime Victim
Compensation Program.
“This case isn’t about a lack of cooperation with the
federal government when it comes to law enforcement,” said Attorney General
Neronha. “That’s not what this case is about. At no time when I was U.S.
Attorney or an Assistant U.S. Attorney did we have any difficulty in enforcing
federal law vis-à-vis state law. The notion that there is a
problem is a trumped-up straw person to try to strong-arm states to do the
federal government’s bidding on civil immigration law, and that is not
something that we are set up to do.
“I strongly believe, and it is part of my value structure,
that when a six or an eight-year-old child is being interviewed at the Child
Advocacy Center as to whether or not an adult sexually assaulted her,
one question that should not be asked is whether that child is in this country
lawfully. What the focus should be, and what the focus is here in Rhode Island,
is taking that child molester off the streets and providing safety and recovery
for that child.
“That’s what we care about here in Rhode Island, and in my view, the federal government should care about exactly the same thing.”
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