Maine’s attorney general says the U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its plan to restrict undocumented immigrants from accessing programs that support survivors of violent crime.
Last week, Maine, 20 other states and the District of Columbia sued the DOJ, challenging a restriction that would have barred states from using federal programs to provide services for undocumented immigrants or people who cannot provide their citizenship status, Attorney General Aaron Frey announced Wednesday.
The programs affected would have included the Victims of Crime Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and Byrne Justice Assistance grants. They are used to provide services that include victim and witness advocacy, emergency shelter, sexual assault forensic exams, and medical, funeral and burial expenses, Frey said.
On Monday, Frey announced that the DOJ had abandoned its plan to impose the restrictions.
“This outcome confirms that funding appropriated by Congress to support crime victims is not a bargaining chip for the Trump Administration to commandeer state resources,” Frey said in a written statement. “This litigation exposed that there was absolutely no legal justification for the DOJ’s attempt to condition receipt of victim programming funds and it further validates the role of states like Maine acting as a check on an overreaching federal government.”
States use those programs to assist about 9 million crime victims and compensate more than 200,000 victims’ claims annually, according to Frey’s announcement.
“Victims of crime are human beings, deserving of care and support,” Frey said last week when he announced Maine had joined the lawsuit. “When the Trump administration attempts to predicate aid on one’s immigration status, it discourages victims from seeking help and pushes already vulnerable people further into danger.”
Frey and the other attorneys general involved in the lawsuit had argued that the proposed restriction was unconstitutional. It would have cut off critical resources and could have discouraged survivors from seeking help, Frey said last week, and would also have required a screening process to verify citizenship that some service providers may not have been able to maintain.
