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.
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Cities face a hard choice: give up the federal money, sign the ICE agreements, or fight the Department of Justice in court.
Janz is ready to sue. Fresno has already gone to court over other grants tied up due to the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion.
An ICE agent talks on the phone during an arrest this month in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. 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 or lose funding tied to local law enforcement efforts.
"DOJ sent out a warning shot, we sent one back," Janz said.
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.
A California federal judge dealt a blow to the Trump administration on July 9 when he ruled the federal government couldn’t withhold public safety grants to Oregon and California cities. Another battle is brewing over the sexual assault evidence kits.
Judge William Orrick wrote in a 68-page ruling that Trump overstepped, and he agreed with Fresno and seven other cities that the strings attached to the grant "have nothing to do with or contradict the Congressional purpose."
Orrick wrote that the public has a legitimate interest in "seeing its communities receive funding for critical infrastructure and public safety initiatives — funding that is paid for by their federal tax dollars."
The same judge ruled last year that Trump couldn’t deny funding to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles — and 30 other cities — over the lack of immigration enforcement cooperation. He did the same in 2017 during Trump's first term.
Police, fire officials plead for funding
Police officers in Corvallis, Oregon, rely on body armor funded by the Department of Justice, Corvallis Police Chief Jason Harvey told a federal court in a May legal filing. Without that money, about $27,000 over the last two years, his officers risk unnecessary danger.
"Such loss risks officer safety and reduces their capacity to effectively protect city residents," Harvey wrote in a legal filing.
The city's fire department would suffer without the federal funding, too. Corvallis’ ambulance service would be slower to respond to 911 calls, putting residents’ lives in danger, wrote the city’s fire chief, Ben Janes.
In Santa Cruz, California, FEMA grants, policing grants and a water-supply project to build drought resiliency are all in jeopardy if the government continues to threaten to withhold funds, wrote the city’s Finance Director Elizabeth Cabell. She painted a bleak picture: layoffs for city employees and cuts to basic city services, like reliably providing water and hardening the city against natural disasters, such as wildfires and earthquakes.
"Not knowing whether Santa Cruz will receive its federal funding puts the operations of at least four City Departments in question," Cabell wrote. "Uncertainty regarding federal funding means the city cannot know whether to operate, pause, or cancel its programs."
Sexual assault kits could be next legal test
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.
Janz, a career prosecutor whose office filed more than 30 cases against alleged rapists with federal money in Fresno alone, said victims are the ones who suffer.
Leaders in this fight say the $350 million Sexual Assault Kit Initiative — paid for by federal grants — is a proven crime-fighting tool that has no ties to ICE or the controversial detainment or data-sharing between local and federal officials.
Even with that investment, the program was imperfect. A 2024 USA TODAY investigation showed departments had haphazard protocols and were slow to build cases to achieve justice for rape victims. Now, the program may be further choked by the Trump administration's withholding of funds.
Some of those places still have backlogs of rape kits. They contain forensic evidence that is still waiting to be tested and put into a federal DNA database to search for matches of other rapes and serious crimes. More than 21 locales that initially received grants to test rape kits are now deemed "sanctuary jurisdictions."
Fresno is in the middle of using its $2 million grant to test a batch of 400 rape kits. That’s now at risk of being stripped, said Janz.
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.
Janz said the situation puts the city in a bind: State law prohibits sharing that type of information, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of the law.
"This is a bad time for them to hold up testing for victims of sexual assault," Janz said. "This is a no-brainer. Let’s help these victims get justice."
Janz sent DOJ an answer to their warning: There was no mistake; the city won’t be helping ICE. He said his letter is likely a final step before the situation heads to court.
DOJ declined to answer questions about the future of Fresno’s grant.
"Applicants are required to submit a certification that they will comply with federal law," DOJ spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle wrote to USA TODAY in an email.
Fresno made good use of past grant money. It tested more than 2,500 backlogged kits, funded 33 new cases — and convicted four people of rape.
Progress threatened by 'stomach-churning' politics
Leaders at the Joyful Heart Foundation were outraged by the funding threats. They advocated for rape kit funding in 2015 under former President Obama when the backlogs were revealed.
They argued that the return on investment for testing rape kits is proven. Studies from West Virginia and Ohio show that being able to tie rapes across borders to one criminal prevents other crimes and can save communities millions.
"Denying a city funding to test rape kits is wrong-headed when your stated goal is taking dangerous offenders off the streets," said Ilse Knecht, the organization’s director of policy and advocacy. "Rapists are often serial rapists. They’re not specialists, and they don’t stop until they’re stopped. Red state or blue state, these guys move around."
Knecht said knee-capping an effective, cost-efficient sexual assault program is "stomach-churning." She pointed to convictions across the country that came from the sexual assault testing program.
Last week, Dallas police announced the arrest of Jarvis Pierce, 35, using DNA testing from the federal program. He's accused of a cold case rape more than 10 years ago.
Los Angeles, Portland take different approaches
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 — whose 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."
