This week, on August 18, 2025, the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice sent a notice to some of its grantees that implies a portion of its grantees can no longer provide certain legal services to immigrants. This notice is vague and provides no guidance regarding which grantees it would apply to, what services would be restricted, or where grantees can ask questions. The notice was also sent through email, and not through a formal process to change grant terms, meaning some grantees may not even receive it or understand if they should follow its directives.
Service providers across the country are scrambling to figure out what the notice means and if their clients will be impacted. Legal services are a critical component of protecting trafficking survivors as well as other survivors of violence. Without the assistance of an attorney, survivors may struggle to access the lifesaving social services and the humanitarian immigration benefits for which they are eligible. They may not be able to establish child custody and support orders to protect their children, access a divorce to safely leave an abusive spouse, remove an abuser from their lease, sue their trafficker for back wages and damages, or a litany of other legal services needed to protect crime victims and their families every day.
Any restriction on access to legal services puts survivors in danger. Without the promise of assistance in applying for immigration benefits and navigating the complex services landscape, immigrant survivors are less likely to come forward and may remain in trafficking situations for longer. It is an immense act of bravery to seek help, as traffickers may threaten survivors and their loved ones if they do. Without legal services, immigrant survivors are left without a way out of trafficking.
When survivors cannot come forward, all of our communities are made less safe. Without survivors coming forward, we cannot work together to make our communities safer by identifying the traffickers and ending their cycle of exploitation. Targeting immigrants has never been proven to reduce crime. Instead, it makes the most vulnerable in our communities more likely to experience exploitation and less able to flee it. Without legal services, we are giving the go-ahead for traffickers to continue exploiting immigrants in our communities without consequences.
This notice will create a chilling effect that prevents survivors from seeking help and shows reckless disregard for the needs of survivors. Survivors deserve access to services that lead to long-term safety. Any attack on some survivors is an attack on all.