Attorney General Neronha co-leads lawsuit against Trump Administration’s imposition of illegal conditions on Victims of Crime Act grants
Published on Monday, August 18, 2025
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today co-led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit in Rhode Island against the Trump Administration over the imposition of illegal conditions on more than $1 billion in Congressionally-authorized funds for Victims of Crime Act grant recipients. 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 is actively preventing Americans from receiving – justice – we have a problem,” said Attorney General Neronha. “We’ve seen this before, DOJ threatening to unlawfully withhold critical federal funding for things like 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.”
The Victims of Crime Act (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: to protect public safety and redress harm to their residents. States use these funds to assist nearly nine million crime victims per year and to provide compensation for more than 200,000 victims’ claims per year. Congress has required the distribution of nearly 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 U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), 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 USDOJ 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 are requesting that the Court permanently enjoin the Trump Administration from implementing or enforcing these illegal conditions.
In Rhode Island, VOCA grants are the primary source of funding 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 close to $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.
Attorney General Neronha co-leads the coalition together with New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and is joined in filing the lawsuit by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
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