Millions in federal funds slashed for violence prevention in Massachusetts
Termination letters sent out to non-profits this week offered a 30-day window to appeal.
Hundreds of grants are being cancelled nationwide because they reportedly do not align with the Trump administration's priorities.
Organizations that received those notifications from the federal government are now grappling with the impact of major funding losses.
'It's a big blow. We believe our mission is perfectly aligned with the goals of the administration,' said Dwight Robson, Executive Vice President of Operations at Chelsea-based Roca.
The DOJ rescinded $6 million in federal grants to Roca.
Robson said the three termination letters he received this week directly impact his non-profit's work in Boston, Hartford, and Baltimore.
Law enforcement in those cities has credited Roca with helping to decrease homicide rates.
'We're working hard to consider how we might close this gap. It's enormous,' he said. 'Community violence intervention works. The proof is in the individual stories of transformation we see every day.'
Other non-profits in Massachusetts that also work to curb crime rates, prevent convicted felons from ending up back in prison, and combat gang violence are processing the immediate cuts as well.
'The message we got is this does not align with the agency's goals, yet I would firmly believe that the Department of Justice is about public safety,' said Gregg Croteau, CEO of Lowell-based UTEC.
Greg Croteau's organization helps young adults who have been involved in criminal activity get on the right track.
The termination letters UTEC received strip $2 million in federal grants.
'This is funding specifically under their program called community violence intervention that works in partnership with community-based organizations, law enforcement, and corrections,' explained Croteau. 'It provides everything from mental health services to childcare support.'
Ruth Zakarian, CEO of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, sent the following statement to Boston 25 News:
'Community Violence Intervention programs are a critical to keeping our communities safe from gun violence. Any disruption in funding is a devastating blow to these programs and the communities they serve. If our government is truly committed to the work of stopping gun violence and keeping our communities safe, they will ensure that CVI programs here in Massachusetts and across the country receive the resources they need.'
Boston 25 News reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and has not yet heard back.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Plans for new offence to crack down on promoting Channel crossings online
Anyone who advertises Channel crossings or fake passports on social media could face up to five years in prison under new plans. Ministers are seeking to create a new offence under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill already going through Parliament, to widen its scope to tackle illegal entry to the UK. The offence would also outlaw the promise of illegal working being promoted online and could carry a large fine. It comes as the Government grapples with a record number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel. On Wednesday, arrivals passed more than 25,000 for the year so far, a record for this point in the year. Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe the changes will give more powers to police and other agencies to disrupt criminal gangs. According to analysis by the Home Office, around 80% of migrants arriving to the UK by small boat told officials they used social media during their journey, including to contact agents linked to people smuggling gangs. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country – whether on or offline – simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral. 'These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them, wherever they operate. The National Crime Agency already works with social media companies to remove posts promoting crossings, with more than 8,000 taken offline in 2024. NCA director general of operations Rob Jones said the proposed new offence will give them more options of how to target gangs and their business models. Previous cases that could have been targeted under the proposed offence include a Preston-based smuggler jailed for 17 years for posting videos of migrants thanking him for his help. Albanian smugglers who used social media to promote £12,000 'package deals' for accommodation and a job in the UK on arrival would also be in scope. The Conservatives said it was 'too little, too late' and that only their proposal to automatically deport people who enter Britain via unauthorised routes can tackle small boat crossings. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'Tinkering at the edges won't fix the problem. 'Labour still has no clear plan to deter illegal entry, no effective enforcement and no strategy to speed up removals. This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing. 'The only clear and enforceable plan is the Conservative Deportation Bill, a no-nonsense strategy that allows us to detain illegal arrivals immediately and remove them without delay. The British public deserve focused action, not more of Labour's dithering.'
Hamilton Spectator
2 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Watchdog agency investigating ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith for alleged illegal political activity
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — An independent watchdog agency responsible for enforcing a law against partisan political activity by federal employees has opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel who brought two criminal cases against then-candidate Donald Trump before his election to the White House last year. The Office of Special Counsel confirmed Saturday that it was investigating Smith on allegations he engaged in political activity through his inquiries into Trump. Smith was named special counsel by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 and his special counsel title is entirely distinct from the agency now investigating him. The office has no criminal enforcement power but does have the authority to impose fines and other sanctions for violations. It was not clear what basis exists to contend that Smith's investigations were political in nature or that he violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, had earlier this week encouraged the office to scrutinize Smith's activities and had alleged that his conduct was designed to help then-President Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, both Democrats. Smith brought two cases against Trump, one accusing him of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the other of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both were brought in 2023, well over a year before the 2024 presidential election, and indictments in the two cases cited what Smith and his team described as clear violations of well-established federal law. Garland has repeatedly said politics played no part in the handling of the cases. Both cases were abandoned by Smith after Trump's November win , with the prosecutor citing longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president. There was no immediate indication that the same office investigating Smith had opened investigations into the Justice Department special counsels who were appointed by Garland to investigate Biden and his son Hunter. The White House had no immediate comment on the investigation into Smith, which was first reported by The New York Post. The office has been riven by leadership tumult over the last year. An earlier chief, Hampton Dellinger, was abruptly fired by the Trump administration and initially sued to get his job back before abandoning the court fight. Trump's trade representative, Jamieson Greer, is also serving as acting special counsel. Trump selected as his replacement Paul Ingrassia, a former right-wing podcast host who has praised criminally charged influencer Andrew Tate as a 'extraordinary human being' and promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged. A Senate panel was set to consider his nomination at a hearing last month, but it was pulled from the agenda. ___ Tucker reported from Washington. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
2 minutes ago
GOP success with new Texas House map could hinge on Latino voters: ANALYSIS
With encouragement from President Donald Trump and the White House, Texas Republicans are redrawing their congressional map to create five new districts the GOP could flip next year, in a bid to insulate their House majority. But that outcome could hinge on Latino voters, and whether Trump's reshaping of the Hispanic electorate in 2024 carries into the next election cycle. Last November, Trump carried 48% of Hispanic voters, setting a high-water mark for a Republican presidential ticket that also won the popular vote. Trump's 2024 showing was 12 points better than 2020, when he lost Hispanic voters 61% to 36% to former President Joe Biden, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. Four of the new Texas seats would be majority-Hispanic districts, adding one more to the state's total. Two of those seats are in South Texas, and represented by Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, who both narrowly won reelection in 2024. Both districts, which Trump carried in 2024, would become more Republican under the redrawn district lines. For conservatives, some experts say the 2024 election represented a paradigm shift, and a fundamental realignment of Latino voters towards the Republican Party, and its positions on the economy, immigration and culture."It's been both an embrace of the alignment of the Republican Party and a rejection of how different they are with what the Democratic Party has been trying to push on them," said Daniel Garza, the president of the Libre Initiative, a group in the Koch family's conservative political network that focuses on Hispanic outreach. Democrats concede that the new map does create challenges for them. But they point to historical trends that show midterm voters traditionally rejecting the party in power -- and an electorate showing frustration with Trump's tariff policies and the state of the economy. Matt Barreto, a Democratic pollster who worked for the Biden and Harris campaigns, has analyzed Texas voting data from every election cycle since 2016, testifying in the federal trial challenging Texas' existing map based on the 2020 census. "There was a Trump-only effect with Hispanics in 2020 and 2024, and it is the case that he improved his standing [in both cycles]," Barreto told ABC News. "It was not transferred to other Republican candidates on the ballot." Barreto said that Republicans did not see the same gains with Latino voters in 2018, when Trump was not on the ballot, and Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke lost to Sen. Ted Cruz by less than 3 percentage points – the tightest Senate margin in Texas in decades. In fact, one of the new districts proposed by Republicans in Texas this week would have voted for O'Rourke, according to an analysis from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "We're already going into a midterm where Republicans will be facing brutal headwinds over inflation, tariffs, Medicaid cuts and ICE raids," Barreto said. "It is extremely risky for Texas Republicans to assume that in a midterm election when Trump is not on ballot and there is an anti-incumbent mood, that they are going to come anywhere close to Trump 2024 numbers." Garza, who lives in South Texas, suggested that Trump's immigration and deportation agenda would not hurt him next November. "Latinos, we feel you can do both. You can do border security and we can expand legal channels. Where's that person, where's that party? Nowhere to be found," he said. "So they're going to stick with Trump because they'd rather have this than what you offered under Biden." Mike Madrid, a Republican political operative who wrote a book on Latino voters and co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told ABC News that Latino voters have made a "rightward shift" away from the Democratic Party because of concerns about the economy. "There has been a rightward shift. There's no question about that. But is it a racial realignment?" he said. "This is an emergence of an entirely different vote. Most of these Latinos that are showing these more pro-Republican propensities are under the age of 30. There isn't even a vote history long enough to suggest that something is realigning." "They're not going to vote through a traditional racial and ethnic lens," he added. "First and foremost, they're an economic, aspirational middle-class voter that is voting overwhelmingly on economic concerns." Both parties will still have their work cut out for them, more than a year out from the midterms. And with Texas, and potentially other states, changing their maps to maximize partisan gains, Republicans and Democrats are redoubling efforts to identify candidates that can run competitive localized races in their districts. Trump's approval rating has dropped to 37%, the lowest of his term, according to Gallup, and he's lost ground this month in approval of his handling of a range of domestic issues, but it's too early for operatives and lawmakers to say if the environment will break Democrats' way. "I think a lot of my fellow Democrats think this is going to be a wave year," one member of Congress said this week. "That, to me, has not borne out yet." Whichever way it breaks, if the maps in Texas are approved, Republicans will have a larger bulwark against a potential midterm tide -- as long as they can keep their 2024 coalition engaged.
