California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over new immigration enforcement conditions placed on federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, challenges requirements that states must support federal immigration enforcement to access more than $1 billion in annual VOCA funding.
These grants are used by states to provide services such as emergency shelter, sexual assault forensic exams, counseling, and other resources for victims and survivors of crime. For fiscal year 2025, California is expected to receive over $165 million from these funds.
“Yet again, the Trump Administration is attempting to bully states into participating in their inhumane and frenzied immigration agenda. This time, the President is holding hostage over a billion dollars in grants that states use to ensure victims and survivors of crime can access emergency shelter, sexual assault forensic exams, counseling, and other essential services to help reclaim their lives after tragedy,” said Attorney General Bonta. “These actions are not only morally wrong — they are also illegal. Only Congress has the power of the purse and the power to condition these funds. This brazen attempt to use funding that supports our most vulnerable residents to strong-arm California and states nationwide into doing the federal government’s job for it, is blatantly beyond the power of the President. We’ll see him in court.”
Since 1984, Congress has determined how nearly all VOCA funds are distributed through statutory formulas. For fiscal year 2025, more than $178 million from the Crime Victims Fund will be awarded under the Victim Compensation Formula Grant and over $1.2 billion under the Victim Assistance Formula Grant.
In July 2025, however, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), which administers VOCA grants within DOJ, announced that states would need to broadly assist with federal immigration enforcement activities as a condition for receiving these funds.
California uses VOCA grants across various programs including its Department of Justice’s Victims’ Services Unit (VSU), which provided services to 1,285 individuals in fiscal year 2023-24; Victim Witness Assistance Centers at district attorney offices statewide that assisted over 279,000 people; and the Domestic Violence Assistance Program supporting nearly 119,000 individuals through non-government organizations during that period.
Attorney General Bonta argues that linking victim assistance funding with immigration enforcement could disrupt these critical services if states refuse compliance or require law enforcement agencies to focus on federal priorities rather than local safety needs. The California Values Act (SB 54) limits state involvement in federal immigration enforcement to maintain trust between communities and law enforcement.
Earlier this year, Bonta filed two other lawsuits challenging similar conditions attached by the Trump Administration on grants from both Homeland Security and Transportation departments.
Joining California in this legal action are attorneys general from New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington D.C.
A copy of the complaint can be found here.
