By Caitlin Sievers | Arizona Mirror
Arizona, along with 20 other states, is suing the U.S. Department of Justice for its plan to ban immigrants who lack legal status from using crime victim services funded by federal grants.
In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the Democratic state attorneys general, including Arizona’s Kris Mayes, said the new edicts are unconstitutional, in violation of the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act.
They argued that orders from the DOJ, which came via email in August and September, were unclear, in conflict with the federal laws that created the grants and had the potential to block aid to crime victims who are U.S. citizens but lack access to identifying documents because of crimes committed against them.
