Attorney General Dan Rayfield, and a coalition of 19 other attorneys general, announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has backed down from its attempt to impose illegal conditions on nearly $1.4 billion in Victims of Crimes Act (VOCA) grants. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration, disregarding the clear letter of the law and intent of Congress, declared that States would be unable to access VOCA funds – used to support victims and survivors of crimes – unless they go along with the Trump Administration’s demands that States assist in federal immigration enforcement.
“These grants help a mom and her kids stay safe when they have nowhere else to turn. They make sure a survivor can sit with a counselor after trauma, and they help advocates be there when victims need them most,” said Attorney General Dan Rayfield. “The Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to put conditions on these federal funds would have put those services at risk. This outcome ensures that critical support for victims and their families will continue here in Oregon.”
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: 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.
However, the Trump Administration, through the DOJ, previously declared that States, along with the victims and survivors they serve, would be blocked from these funds unless they comply with the Administration’s political agenda – namely its immigration enforcement priorities. In order to receive these funds, States were told that they must devote resources to assisting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with civil immigration enforcement efforts – a federal, not state, government responsibility.
In Oregon, 146 victim service providers rely on VOCA grants, and faced a loss of around $15 million in 2025 under these federal cuts. Because VOCA is funded by criminal fines—not taxpayer dollars, it was designed to support victims, not to be used as leverage for unrelated political interests.
Following the lawsuit brought forward by the coalition, the DOJ abandoned its plan to impose these conditions on $178 million in VOCA Victim Assistance Grants and $1.2 billion in VOCA Victim Compensation grants. These grants will continue to be provided to states with no requirement that States assist DHS in immigration enforcement.
Attorney General Rayfield is joined in this lawsuit by the Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Note: this is separate from the VOCA lawsuit filed earlier this week, after the U.S. DOJ informed states that they could no longer use VOCA or VAWA money to provide legal services to undocumented immigrants or other people who cannot prove their status.
