Twenty states and the District of Columbia sued the Justice Division on Monday for including a brand new immigration enforcement rule to federal grants that help victims of crime — arguing it is a part of the Trump administration’s crackdown towards “sanctuary states.”
The lawsuit focuses on the Workplace for Victims of Crime, a 42-year-old division of the Justice Division that palms out greater than $1 billion per yr to all 50 states to compensate crime victims and fund packages like native disaster counseling facilities, emergency shelters, home abuse hotlines and sufferer advocacy companies.
The Trump-era Justice Division added a brand new situation to these grants that denies funding to any program that “violates (or promotes or facilitates the violation of) federal immigration regulation.” That features failing to “give entry to [Department of Homeland Security] brokers, or honor DHS requests.”
However the states that joined Monday’s lawsuit argue that the rule is prohibited, for the reason that Reagan-era regulation that arrange the federal authorities’s crime sufferer grant packages would not say something about immigration enforcement.
“The challenged situations would power these States into an untenable place: both forfeit entry to crucial sources for susceptible crime victims and their households, or settle for illegal situations, permitting the federal authorities to conscript state and native officers to implement federal immigration regulation,” the states and D.C. argue within the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court docket in Rhode Island.
Largely Democratic states joined the swimsuit, together with California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Colorado. Collectively, they’ve obtained greater than $500 million a yr in crime sufferer grants since 2021, in line with the lawsuit.
The states requested a federal decide to dam the brand new guidelines and declare them unlawful. They stated they want “pressing reduction” since purposes for many of the grants are due Wednesday.
The Justice Division declined to touch upon the lawsuit.
As President Trump seeks to dramatically ramp up arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants, his administration has taken purpose at so-called sanctuary cities and states, which typically restrict native police from cooperating with federal immigration brokers.
Inside hours of his swearing-in on Jan. 20, the president signed an govt order directing officers to make sure that sanctuary jurisdictions “don’t obtain entry to Federal funds.” Weeks later, Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Division to determine and pause grants to teams that “assist or present companies to detachable or unlawful aliens.”
The administration argues that sanctuary cities and states make it tougher to implement immigration legal guidelines, particularly towards criminals who find yourself in state or native custody.
Supporters of sanctuary legal guidelines, nevertheless, argue that forcing native regulation enforcement officers to work with immigration brokers makes migrants much less more likely to cooperate with the police. Monday’s lawsuit stated the situations on crime sufferer grants danger “destroying belief between regulation enforcement and immigrant communities that’s crucial to stopping and responding to crime.”
“The federal authorities is making an attempt to make use of crime sufferer funds as a bargaining chip to power states into doing its bidding on immigration enforcement,” New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James stated in an announcement.
Earlier this yr, the Justice Division minimize off a whole bunch of federal grant packages, together with cash for nonprofits that assist victims of hate crimes, intercourse trafficking and violence towards kids, in line with a listing obtained by CBS Information. The heads of some nonprofits warned they would wish to put off employees or shutter crime sufferer hotlines.
On the time, a Justice Division spokesperson instructed CBS Information: “We’re assured that these cuts are in keeping with the administration’s priorities whereas on the similar time defending companies that tangibly impression victims.”
A bunch of anti-domestic-violence nonprofits additionally sued the Justice Division earlier this yr for banning grant funding beneath the Violence In opposition to Girls Act to teams that promote “gender ideology” or variety, fairness and inclusion packages. A decide paused that rule.
