The Trump administration has reinstated a government office for American victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants that the Biden administration had shuttered.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE, was restored. It will serve American families who lost loved ones to crimes carried out by people illegally living in the United States rather than only focus on immigrants who were crime victims.
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“Biden prioritized and protected foreign criminals and undermined our national sovereignty and violated our laws and then closed an office that served the victims that were impacted by it,” Noem said during a press conference in Washington Wednesday afternoon.
“President Trump is righting the ship, and he’s reopening this office, and he’s going to prioritize not only these families but all the families that will be impacted by illegal immigration and the tragedy of losing someone because of the consequences of it,” Noem said.
The announcement’s timing was no coincidence amid National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. The office was first launched in 2017 at the start of the first Trump administration.
VOICE will support crime victims and their families, promote greater awareness of services available to victims, and build partnerships with community stakeholders.
“I want to make it clear that the VOICE office isn’t limited to specific crimes, whether an alien commits fraud, sexual abuse, murder, drunk driving crimes, battery, or other criminal offenses. We can help,” acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said.
Ahead of the announcement, Noem met with American families of brutal crimes that illegal immigrants carried out during the Biden administration. The families huddled around Noem and Lyons during the press conference.
Sabine Durden, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Germany, lost her son, Dominic, when an illegal immigrant driving without a license crashed into him, instantly killing him.
Durden said she became a supporter of President Donald Trump in 2015 when she heard his campaign announcement, which focused heavily on illegal immigration.
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“The VOICE office was so important,” Durden said Wednesday. “We had someone to call, someone to reach out to along the way, and I’m forever grateful.”
The press conference comes hours after the DHS’s Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would begin screening immigrants’ social media accounts for antisemitism.
