Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel hits a home run against the Department of Justice, toppling a Trump administration attempt to tie nearly $1.4 billion in crime victims' funds to immigration enforcement. The plan, which would have forced states to collaborate with Homeland Security or lose access to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants, was dropped after a multi-state lawsuit highlighted its legality issues, according to a statement made by the Michigan government's website.
Yearly, Michigan banks between $27 million and $43 million in VOCA grants, maintaining a lifeline for about 115 victim service organizations across the state. This money serves as the sinews and muscle aiding survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, and human trafficking, among other crimes—but the DOJ’s monkey wrench threatened to dismantle this support system, holding these funds hostage unless the state played ball with federal immigration policies.
The VOCA established by Ronald Reagan in 1984 meant to weave a safety net for crime victims—an effort ensuring these individuals could piece together the shards of their lives post-traumatic events. Quantifying this, the annual nationwide funding surpasses a billion dollars, assisting close to 9 million victims each year, an effort unbecoming of partisan demand, despite what the previous administration's DOJ had envisioned.
A week prior, Nessel, alongside other states, unfurled a new lawsuit challenging the DOJ's policy prohibiting VOCA funds from supporting undocumented immigrants or those unable to prove their status, which Nessel considers not only "cruel and dangerous" but counterintuitive to public safety and decency, as noted on the Michigan government's website. VOCA Victim Assistance and Victim Compensation Grants, amounting to $1.2 billion, will continue to flow into state coffers sans the controversial conditions.
