California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer enforce conditions that would have prohibited organizations from using federal crime victim grants to provide legal services to undocumented immigrants. This change follows a multistate lawsuit led by California and joined by 20 other attorneys general, challenging a restriction on Victims of Crimes Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant funding.
According to Bonta, many organizations receiving these funds offer essential services such as support for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and elder abuse. The DOJ’s prior definition of “legal” services was criticized as vague and could have affected assistance regardless of immigration status.
With the DOJ’s commitment to drop the contested condition, California can continue using more than $160 million in grant funding received this year—and additional tens of millions from previous years—to provide legal help to crime victims without new restrictions.
“Today’s decision marks another good outcome for California communities and the incredible organizations, programs, and services that support them,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Trump Administration must stop playing games with peoples’ lives. Yanking funding from victims of crimes benefits no one. It only makes our communities less safe. While U.S. DOJ has backed down in the face of our litigation, these organizations did not deserve the whiplash of the past few months. California and our partner states will continue to fight back against President’s lawlessness and his callous disregard for our residents’ safety and well-being.”
In 2024, nearly one million Californians benefited from victim assistance funds distributed by subgrantees across the state. These resources provided support in civil legal matters for over 100,000 victims and families. The funding also covers crisis intervention, counseling, emergency shelter, transitional housing assistance, as well as law enforcement initiatives like officer training on trauma-informed responses and improvements in evidence collection related to sexual assault and domestic violence cases.
Attorney General Bonta has taken extensive legal action against federal policies he described as harmful or unlawful regarding public safety grants and immigration enforcement requirements. Over a period of 43 weeks he filed 46 lawsuits against actions taken by the Trump Administration aimed at protecting state funding streams as well as Californians’ rights.
Last month Bonta obtained a similar pledge from DOJ after another multistate lawsuit concerning $1.3 billion in VOCA grants intended for crime victims’ services nationwide. He has also won permanent injunctions blocking attempts by federal officials to tie immigration enforcement measures to billions in transportation or homeland security grants.
Bonta further achieved relief for schools through litigation challenging withheld education funds during pandemic recovery efforts—securing restoration of over $900 million at the start of an academic year plus an additional $200 million previously awarded.
He reports early success in most court cases where preliminary rulings were issued—including halting attempts to restrict access based on immigration status for programs like Head Start; stopping unauthorized use or sharing of Medicaid recipients’ private data; preventing demands for SNAP recipient data; defending birthright citizenship; among others.
Further information about these accountability efforts is available at https://oag.ca.gov/federal-accountability.
