The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its requirement that states cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts to be eligible for funding from a grant program designed to help crime victims, the Maine attorney general’s office announced Monday.
A coalition of Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C., asked a federal judge in August to block the Justice Department from enforcing conditions that would cut funding to a state or subgrantee if it refused to honor civil immigration enforcement requests, denied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers access to facilities or failed to give advance notice of release dates of individuals who might be wanted by ICE because of their immigration status.
The requirement would have affected nearly $1.4 billion in Victims of Crime Act grants nationally.
Maine received a total of roughly $5.9 million in VOCA grants in 2025, including $346,000 in victim compensation grants, and a little less than $5.6 million in victim assistance grants, according to the federal Office for Victims of Crime.
VOCA was enacted in 1984 to provide resources and services to victims of crime, including medical expense reimbursement, paying for crime scene cleanup, counseling or helping with funeral costs for homicide victims, testing rape kits, funding grants to domestic violence recovery organizations, trauma recovery centers and more.
The federal funding covers the cost of about 75% of state compensation program awards.
As with other federal grant programs, the Trump administration had tried to require states to help federal immigration enforcement in order to receive the funding.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
