Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz was furious to learn that the Trump administration is threatening to withhold grant money the city uses to help prosecute rapists — all because the California city was deemed a refuge for immigrants.
"Justice for victims shouldn’t be politicized. It has nothing to do with immigration enforcement," Janz told USA TODAY.
It’s the latest example of the Trump administration’s promise to withhold funding from cities it calls "sanctuary jurisdictions." It pressures cities to sign cooperation agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials with the strongest tool at its disposal: money.
There will be no federal funds for bulletproof vests for cops in Santa Cruz, California, the city alleged in a lawsuit. No ambulances for paramedics in Beaverton, Oregon. And now, no money for police departments to process rape kits in Fresno, as the administration threatens to withhold federal grants for critical services from cities that won't sign deals to work with ICE.
Cities face a hard choice: give up the federal money, sign the ICE agreements, or fight the Department of Justice in court.
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Los Angeles County said it is forgoing many federal grant opportunities. Miami is facing backlash from residents after city leaders signed on to ICE's program. And other cities, from Seattle to San Diego, are launching their own court battles.
In October, the DOJ named 12 states, 18 cities, and three counties that it said "materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes." In general, many of those locations refuse to share information with ICE, hold individuals for ICE, or allow agents into their jails.
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Last year, the president signed an executive order directing federal agencies to suspend grants to states and cities that don’t cooperate with immigration officials. That included grants to pay for processing rape kits used to convict child sex offenders in Fresno.
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DOJ grant administrators sent Fresno a note in June, noting that the city had not signed a certification saying it would cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE or risk losing the money. DOJ wanted to make sure it wasn’t an oversight.
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Other cities on the West Coast have sued the administration over similar restrictions in DOJ grants related to "diversity, equity and inclusion" language and immigration enforcement.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's administrative chief Navjot Kaur, – who's office represents 10 million residents – wrote in a legal filing that he was forced not to apply for federal funding to test rape kits because of the sanctuary jurisdiction classification. Administrators worry the county’s backlog of unsubmitted rape kits would grow, and victim services could lag.
Portland, Oregon, has $8.6 million in active DOJ grants, including $2.5 million for cold cases and sexual assault kits.
The city helped clear the state’s backlog of thousands of forgotten and untested kits in 2018 with federal funding. Kits continued to accumulate, and in 2024, the state’s backlog returned. Portland Police were waiting eight months for kits to be tested and have hundreds in line.
Without the funding, City Administrator Raymond Lee wrote in a filing, the programs would be "significantly curtailed or eliminated."
That is meant to be a threat, but would actually be a good opportunity to reform police with fewer restraints using state and local money instead
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