November 24, 2025 - OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced that the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) has backed down following a multistate lawsuit and committed to drop illegal conditions on Victims of Crimes Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant funding. Last month, Attorney General Bonta joined 20 attorneys general in challenging a new condition prohibiting recipients of various public safety and victim services grants from using funding to provide legal services to undocumented immigrants. Many of the organizations that receive these funds provide critical wraparound services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and elder abuse — services that could be described as “legal” under U.S. DOJ’s vague definition — irrespective of an individual’s immigration status. With today’s stipulation and dismissal, Attorney General Bonta preserves California organizations’ ability to use the over $160 million in grant funding that the State received this year, and tens of millions of funding from prior years, to provide legal services to victims of crimes without unnecessary and unlawful 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, California subgrantees used victim assistance funds to serve nearly 1 million Californians, including supporting more than 100,000 victims and families on various civil legal matters. Among other things, this funding supports crisis intervention, counseling and advocacy, emergency shelter, and transitional housing assistance. It also supports law enforcement initiatives such as training officers on trauma-informed and victim-centered responses; developing specialized domestic violence or sexual assault units; and improving evidence collection in sexual assault and domestic violence cases. 

SECURING RELIEF FOR CALIFORNIANS 

Attorney General Bonta has filed 46 lawsuits against the Trump Administration in 43 weeks, with significant early victories and full and complete wins in litigation protecting California’s funding, programs, and services; safeguarding Californians’ rights and personal, private data; and preventing the dismantling of the federal government.   

Just last month, Attorney General Bonta secured a similar commitment from U.S. DOJ, following a separate multistate lawsuit, to drop its plan to impose illegal immigration enforcement conditions on over $1.3 billion in VOCA grants. He has also secured permanent injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual transportation and homeland security grants and halting the Administration’s unlawful attempt to slash funding for a critical energy program. Attorney General Bonta also secured full and permanent relief for California schools in his lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s withholding of over $900 million in funding at the start of the school year and another $200 million in previously obligated and awarded funding for the academic recovery of students following the COVID-19 pandemic.  

While many cases are still ongoing, Attorney General Bonta has secured early relief in the vast majority of cases where he has sought and where a court has issued a ruling: blocking the Trump Administration’s attack on the Department of Health and Human Services; stopping its attempt to impose cruel new restrictions on access to public benefit programs like Head Start based on immigration status; preventing it from allowing ICE to comb through the private data of Medicaid recipients or from bullying states into turning over the data of SNAP recipients to aid in its mass deportation efforts; and safeguarding the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, among other decisions. 

You can find more on the California Department of Justice’s work to hold the federal government accountable here: https://oag.ca.gov/federal-accountability. 

Source: CA. DOJ