Raoul sues Trump administration for access to crime victim funding
[August 19, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD – Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Monday that he has
joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration
from withholding federal funding to support crime victims in Illinois
due to the state’s policy on immigration.
The lawsuit is one of 35 such suits challenging Trump administration
policies that Raoul has joined as part of a coalition of Democratic
state attorneys general. That’s an average of more than one suit per
week since Trump resumed office on Jan. 20.
The latest suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, argues
that the U.S. Department of Justice has imposed unlawful conditions on
the distribution of funds under the federal Victims of Crime Act, a 1984
law that provides funding to help crime victims deal with costs
resulting from crimes, including medical bills, counseling services and
lost wages.
The money is distributed to states through a series of grant programs.
States then distribute their share of the money to programs and agencies
that provide services or aid to crime victims. For the current federal
fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30, more than $1.3 billion is
supposed to be available nationwide, including about $54 million for
Illinois.
Raoul’s office said the funding supports such programs as victim and
witness advocacy services, emergency shelters, medical, funeral and
burial expenses, crime scene cleanup, and sexual assault forensic exams.
Trump administration conditions
According to the lawsuit, however, the Trump administration has attached
new and unlawful conditions to the distribution of those funds.
Those conditions were spelled out in a July 21 Notice of Funding
Opportunity, which provides that funding may not be used for any
“program or activity that, directly or indirectly, violates (or promotes
or facilitates the violation of) federal immigration law … or impedes or
hinders the enforcement of federal immigration law.”
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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (Capitol News Illinois file
photo)
According to the notice, that includes complying with a federal statute
that prohibits state and local governments from restricting
communication with immigration officials.
The lawsuit alleges that the requirement is more than a limit on the
allowable use of funds but actually serves as an eligibility
requirement, meaning any state or local jurisdiction with laws or
policies in place that limit their law enforcement agencies from fully
cooperating with federal immigration authorities will be deemed
ineligible.
At issue in Illinois, according to the lawsuit, is the state’s 2017
TRUST Act, which, among other things, prohibits state and local law
enforcement officials from assisting federal immigration agents in
enforcement operations, giving immigration agents access to detained
individuals or giving agents nonpublic information about the release
dates of detained individuals.
“Conditioning that vital funding on cooperation with immigration
enforcement is not just unlawful, it is immoral,” Raoul said during a
news conference Monday. “VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funds have no
relationship to civil immigration policy. In fact, grants are
distributed based on a statutory formula that has nothing to do with
immigration.”
The lawsuit argues those conditions violate the federal Administrative
Procedures Act, that they exceed the Justice Department’s legal
authority and that they violate U.S. Constitution’s spending clause and
separation of powers doctrine. It also asks the court to permanently
enjoin enforcement of the conditions.
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