States sue DOJ over rule requiring citizenship proof for sexual assault services

(CN) — A coalition of states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over a rule change requiring survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence to immediately prove their citizenship status in order to receive certain federal aid.

In their lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island’s federal court, the states scrutinize new guidance from the Justice Department that they say recently raised the bar to access federal programs under the Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Crime Act.

In effect, they say this rule change requires states to review survivors’ immigration status prior to giving them aid, straining state resources and leaving behind thousands of domestic violence and sexual assault victims.

This could even discourage even lawful residents and U.S. citizens from using federal aid if they cannot immediately produce the required documentation in the aftermath of their abuse, the states argue. They note that many abusers have been known to restrict a victim’s access to their legal documents to retain control over them.

“Imposing what may essentially be an affirmative requirement that victims demonstrate that they are not ‘removable’ or ‘otherwise unlawfully present’ in order to be eligible for VOCA- or VAWA-funded legal services would also foreseeably impact many victims, including citizens, for whom the reality of recent proximity to crime may make it dangerous, or even impossible, to gather and present legal documentation of status before acutely needing services,” the states say in their 50-page complaint.

The new guidelines are ambiguous too, the states claim, because the Justice Department doesn’t explicitly state which legal services are now restricted, which subset of immigrants are cut off from them and how states are meant to make that distinction.

“As a result, plaintiff states and their subgrantees are left to guess which services are covered for whom, and to guess which new processes may be required to comply with the condition,” they argue. “If the condition is construed to require verification of the immigration statuses of all clients before legal services can be offered, it is equally ambiguous as to how plaintiff states would effectively enact compliance with this condition and monitor subgrantee compliance as well.”

Grant funding from the Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Crime Act enables states to support victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and other violent crimes by providing them with services like family court legal representation, child support, relocation and housing assistance, and other services designed to help survivors escape and recover from abuse.

Rape crisis centers are also funded by the Violence Against Women Act.

In New York alone, the pair of programs provided services to more than 1 million residents, according to the state attorney general’s office.

“Sexual assault and domestic violence survivors turn to our courts for safety and protection,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “They should never be turned away because of who they are or where they come from. With this cruel attempt to dictate which survivors deserve access to legal supports, DOJ is endangering families, silencing survivors, and threatening public safety. I will not stand idly by while the federal government unjustly attacks people seeking protection from violence. We are asking the court to block this illegal rule before it takes effect, immeasurably harming survivors.”

James is leading the coalition, composed of 20 states and the District of Columbia. Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin are the other suing parties.

The states are seeking injunctive relief to block the rule change from taking effect. The Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Office of Justice Programs are among the named defendants.

In August, another multistate coalition filed suit against the Trump administration over the Victims of Crime Act. In that complaint, the states claimed that the federal government was unlawfully dangling the program’s funding over their heads in an effort to strong-arm them into complying with the administration’s mass deportation agenda.

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