Sponsors (4)
The bill expands targeted compensation, counseling, and information services for victims of crimes by noncitizens—improving support and safety tracking for affected families—while tying benefits to perpetrator immigration/status and adding administrative, privacy, and fiscal burdens that could exclude other victims and increase state and federal costs.
Immediate family members of homicide victims ("angel families") and survivors of criminal violence can receive compensation for mental-health counseling, related medical expenses, lost wages from emotional distress, and funeral costs.
Victims and their families gain improved access to support and safety information through a dedicated hotline, automated custody-status notifications, and releasable criminal/immigration history on alleged offenders.
States may expand eligibility and provide these benefits using existing state victim compensation programs rather than creating a new federal program, allowing more flexible and potentially faster local implementation.
Expanded 'angel family' benefits are limited to homicides committed by unlawfully present aliens or members of international drug cartels, excluding survivors of other homicides from equivalent new support.
States may face increased costs to compensate newly eligible families and to operate expanded services, potentially requiring higher state spending or reallocation of resources.
Tying eligibility to immigration status or cartel membership will require verification processes that can delay payments and increase administrative burden for state and local programs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 13, 2025 by Roger Wayne Marshall · Last progress May 13, 2025
Expands eligibility for state victim-compensation programs to include immediate family members of homicide victims killed by certain unlawfully present aliens or by members of international drug‑trafficking organizations, allowing payment for medical and mental‑health care, emotional‑distress wage loss, and funeral costs. Creates a new Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office in DHS to provide a hotline, case services, custody‑status notifications, releasable criminal/immigration information, a case study, and annual reports to Congress on victims and criminal‑alien demographics.