DOJ quietly awards latest funding to support funding for victims of violent crimes

Amid lawsuits in Rhode Island federal court challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to tie victims’ compensation funds to its immigration agenda, more than $1.4 billion in federal grants for direct aid and support services is now on the way without those strings attached.

Without any major announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice posted its state-by-state allocations of the congressionally appropriated Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) money for federal fiscal year 2025 on its website.

VOCA takes fees, fines and penalties collected in federal court proceedings and disburses those funds to the states to use on victim services — which can include the operations of community-based organizations such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers and the work of victim-witness offices within county district attorneys’ offices. 

Rhode Island will receive over $4.8 million for federal fiscal 2025, which technically wrapped up Tuesday, to help violent crime victims and their families with direct compensation and support services through partner nonprofits. For federal fiscal year 2024, Rhode Island received nearly $3.3 million in federal VOCA funds.

The latest VOCA funding was thrown into doubt in February when the Trump administration threatened to withhold allocating grants from states whose officials refused to comply with federal immigration enforcement.

In response, a coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island August, arguing that requiring states to participate in such actions violates the constitution’s tenets of separation of powers and federalism.

“Because of the action taken by this coalition, more than a billion dollars in federal grant funding for victims of crime has been secured,” Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha said in a statement.

A separate federal lawsuit was filed by the same coalition of Democratic attorneys general on Wednesday in Rhode Island to block new conditions scheduled to take effect on Oct. 31.  Those conditions bar states from using DOJ programs to provide legal services to undocumented immigrants.

Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, declined to comment for this story