Sponsors (3)
The bill creates an ICE-run, centralized victim office and reporting requirements to provide information and oversight for crimes by unlawfully present aliens, improving targeted services and data while risking deterrence of immigrant victims, politicization of services, and added taxpayer costs.
Victims and their families (including parents) gain a centralized, victim-centered ICE office (VOICE) and hotline that provides information and referrals and a single point of contact for crime-related assistance.
Victims can receive custody-status alerts and criminal/immigration-history information about alleged offenders, giving them timely safety-relevant information.
Quarterly reporting to Congress and the public creates more data and oversight on victimization tied to unlawfully present aliens, improving transparency for taxpayers and local governments.
Immigrant victims and witnesses are likely to be deterred from contacting the office due to its placement inside ICE, reducing reporting and access to services for people afraid of enforcement.
Services are narrowly focused on crimes by unlawfully present aliens, which may leave victims of similar crimes by citizens or lawful residents without equivalent dedicated assistance.
Framing the office around 'criminal aliens' risks politicizing victim services and shifting resources toward enforcement‑related outreach instead of broadly available, non‑enforcement victim assistance.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates an ICE office to assist victims and witnesses of crimes by aliens unlawfully present with hotlines, local contacts, services, custody notifications, and quarterly reports.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by John Bergman · Last progress January 3, 2025
Creates a dedicated Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office inside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide victim-centered help to victims and witnesses of crimes committed by aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to their families and legal representatives. The office must run a toll-free hotline, maintain local contacts and partnerships, provide access to social service professionals, offer automated custody-status signups, and supply additional criminal or immigration-history information to victims or families. It also requires quarterly reports studying effects of such victimization, with the first report due within 180 days of enactment. The bill also records congressional findings about the prior creation and termination of a similar VOICE office.