By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A group of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to prevent the Trump administration from forcing them to cooperate with immigration enforcement activities in order to receive grant funding to support crime victims.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Rhode Island is the latest case to challenge efforts by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to impose immigration-related conditions on states’ ability to receive federal funding.
Monday’s lawsuit by state attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia takes aim at a condition the U.S. Department of Justice recently imposed on the ability of states to receive grants pursuant to the Victims of Crime Act, which Congress enacted in 1984 to bolster support for crime victims.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The department administers programs funded by fines and penalties assessed in federal criminal cases that allow states to receive grant funding to provide services for victims including medical care, counseling, shelter and compensation for lost wages.
Attorneys general from states including California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island say those funds help about 10 million people annually. In 2025, nearly $1.4 billion in such funding is available, the lawsuit said.
But under a new Trump administration policy, states can lose out on such funding if they decline to provide U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to facilities or honor all civil immigration enforcement requests, the lawsuit said.
The conditions were imposed in keeping with a policy Attorney General Pam Bondi unveiled in February requiring the Justice Department to ensure that federal funds do not flow to so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” that do not cooperate with ICE.
The states’ lawsuit argues that such conditions are unlawful and violate the U.S. Constitution by undermining Congress’ power over appropriations. They are asking a judge to block the Justice Department from enforcing the conditions.
Judges in Rhode Island have issued a series of rulings preventing the administration from imposing conditions on grant funding that align with Trump’s broader agenda.
Most recently, a judge in the state this month barred the Justice Department from enforcing new restrictions on grant funding used to support victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Mark Porter)
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