‘Morally correct’: Idaho lawmaker, attorney general clash over funds for victims
A Canyon County woman with young kids was the victim in a recent attempted murder case. But she didn’t have access to the Idaho Crime Victims Compensation Program, a state resource that can pay for help like counseling, because of her legal status, Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue said.
Instead, the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office worked to fill the gap through non-governmental resources.
Since last year, crime victims in Idaho have needed to prove their lawful presence to access the state’s compensation program — even, until recently, to fund exams after sexual assaults. That requirement followed an interpretation of a new law produced by Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office — an interpretation questioned by some advocates, state Sen. Melissa Wintrow and the Idaho Dairymen’s Association.
After months of back and forth, Wintrow got a corrective law passed in March to address the problem. It takes effect July 1.
“I was so startled,” Wintrow, a Boise Democrat, said in a mid-April interview from her office in the Capitol. “I thought the Attorney General’s Office was there to help crime victims, not put roadblocks in front of them.”
Despite the new law, as of late April, the need to prove citizenship remained on several crime victim compensation applications.
Donahue “supports the recent change in law that expands access to the Crime Victims Compensation Program” and “believes all victims should have equal access to available resources,” he said.
“Becoming a victim of crime is not a choice, and access to support services should not vary based on factors unrelated to the crime itself,” Donahue, a longtime Republican sheriff, told the Statesman.
When someone in Idaho is the victim of sexual assault or their family member is killed in a homicide, they can turn to the Idaho Crime Victims Compensation Program, whose $5 million budget can pay for things such as rape kits, funerals or mental health treatment for the person to start healing. The program is under the state’s Industrial Commission.
But the Idaho Attorney General’s Office — led since 2023 by Labrador, who ousted fellow Republican Lawerence Denney the previous year — interpreted a 2025 law in a way that created barriers to those funds, according to emails received via a records request and Wintrow, who brought the bill in the 2026 session to undo the office’s advice.
Amy Berg, a spokesperson with the Idaho Industrial Commission, said in an email that the requirements increased processing times for victims to get help. The commission declined to answer three of the Statesman’s questions, citing an inability to comment about “discussions with our legal counsel.”
The AG’s office maintained its position for months, despite an opinion from an outside legislative lawyer disagreeing with its interpretation, according to emails obtained via a records request. That lawyer later cited a 2025 letter from the U.S. Department of Justice to explain why the attorney general was wrong. Labrador’s office did not return a request for comment.
The disagreement started last year, when lawmakers passed legislation to strip certain public benefits from some immigrants, including soup kitchens, prenatal care and food assistance for a minor child. The bill, which took effect July 1, 2025, did not mention crime victims compensation.
But after the bill became law, Labrador’s office advised the Crime Victims Compensation Program that staff now had to ask people for their citizenship status before reimbursing victims or paying for sexual assault kits, according to emails obtained via a records request.
In a February hearing for her 2026 bill, Wintrow told fellow lawmakers that for U.S. citizens, who likely make up the vast majority of people applying for compensation, the change added more red tape and created a backlog for victims in traumatic situations.
“I don’t know where my birth certificate is right now, actually,” Wintrow said.
The program supports victims from the Boise mall shooting, the University of Idaho quadruple murder and the killing of two firefighters in North Idaho in 2025, according to an email obtained via a records request.
But not everything is so high-profile: In fiscal year 2025, program staff received applications from people dealing with cases ranging from child sexual abuse to vehicular fatalities, according to the same email.
It’s unclear whether anyone decided not to apply for help because of their legal status.
The AG’s interpretation upended normal procedures and created uncertainty for the compensation program. With no funding to help implement new requirements, staff members were reassigned to learn about immigration statuses, according to an email obtained via a records request.
In that email, Idaho Industrial Commission Bureau Chief Darci Anderson wrote that the family members of some of the international tourists killed in the DUI crash in East Idaho in 2025 “will be denied” eligibility for the program because the state couldn’t determine the lawful presence of those family members who lived outside the U.S.
Under the changes, people who were homeless, distrusted the government or wanted to protect their information could end up paying the financial price for crimes perpetrated against them, Anderson wrote.
“Naively, innocently, I thought, if this was a mistake and I brought attention to it, we would correct it,” Wintrow said. “I did not anticipate the stubborn, fierce, immovability of (the AG’s) office. It was shocking.”
It’s unclear what happened with the East Idaho victims; the crime victims compensation program cannot publicly share details. Idaho Code says that the commission’s information and records are confidential and exempt from public disclosure, though not to public officials. In a February hearing, Wintrow said no one was denied after the law changed.
Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, who sponsored the initial bill denying some services for immigrants, told the Statesman that was not his bill’s intent. Crime victims compensation is not a welfare benefit, he said.
How it started
In 2007, then-state Rep. Labrador was considering an Idaho attempt to restrict what benefits immigrants could receive. Labrador, an immigration lawyer, told the House State Affairs Committee that a bill was unnecessary, according to meeting minutes obtained by the Statesman. Federal law already existed, he said, as did a state mandate. He voted against the bill on the House floor.
Nevertheless, the bill became law. In 2024 and again in 2025, Redman brought his bill seeking to narrow the language in state code and remove many of the remaining exceptions, like for crisis counseling or soup kitchens. His second attempt succeeded over the objections of Democrats and some conservatives.
“We are a Christian nation. … These are people who need help when they need help,” said Rep. Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley, during a committee hearing on the 2025 law. “It’s sad that we’re attacking them in this way.”
Just days before the law was set to take effect, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced a lawsuit against a part of the law that would prevent some immigrants from receiving HIV medication. A judge blocked that portion of the law, but the rest of it went into effect.
On June 30, the day before the law hit the books, the industrial commission’s Anderson emailed new guidance, according to documents obtained via a records request. Everyone who wanted assistance from the program, including for rape kits, had to verify their lawful presence.
At issue was whether crime victim compensation was a public benefit.
The program is funded by fines and penalties paid by convicted people, in addition to a federal grant. A portion of its money, to pay for adult sexual assault exams, comes from the state’s general fund.
Phil Skinner, chief of staff in the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, wrote in a five-page opinion to Wintrow that compensation for crime victims was a public benefit. He acknowledged one legal conflict, which is that federal law required paying for victims’ medical exams, regardless of their immigration status.
But a lawyer with the Legislative Services Office, Elizabeth Bowen, said the funds weren’t public benefits. In the 1980s, a President Ronald Reagan-established task force recommended against residency requirements for crime victims compensation, since that left a patchwork of support depending on where a crime took place. The funds are “a remedy, not social support.”
“Since the federal government itself does not regard crime victim compensation as a federal public benefit, I see no reason why the state should,” Bowen argued, according to a copy of her 13-page opinion obtained by the Statesman.
The people who directly benefit from making it harder to collect forensic evidence in sexual assault cases are the sexual offenders “who remain free to offend again,” Bowen wrote.
‘Sick’: Some express concerns
Darrel Harris, director of prevention for The Advocates, which is based in Hailey, told the Statesman the group was very worried about hospitals billing undocumented people who needed a forensic exam after a sexual assault. The organization decided it would pay for any exams if crime victims compensation wouldn’t, Harris said.
“We do not need any more barriers. It’s hard enough to come in and get an exam or even get help,” Harris said in a phone interview. “I felt kind of sick that another barrier was added.”
Wintrow worked for half a year to get the sexual assault kit guidance overturned by the AG’s office, which finally happened in December. In all the confusion, Wintrow said, she’d heard that some victims may have been billed for rape kits.
But because of an oversight, one of the sexual assault exam reimbursement applications still asked for legal status until mid-April, when a reporter inquired about the discrepancy. The other still asks for legal status because people could ask for help with other medical expenses beyond the exam, according to Berg, the industrial commission spokesperson. That is expected to change once the updated law takes effect.
Wintrow and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office didn’t reach a resolution over the rest of the law until mid-winter.
It wasn’t until a chance meeting with Labrador and a top deputy at the Arid Club in Boise during the session that Wintrow was able to get Labrador’s office to concede and suggest an exemption for crime victims compensation, she said. The senator, Labrador and Skinner, his chief of staff, hashed it out, sitting at a table at a reception for constitutional officers and legislative leadership.
The Idaho Dairymen’s Association supported Wintrow’s bill, and wrote in a bill analysis that the 2025 law “strangely was construed” to apply to crime victims compensation. The association disagreed with the attorney general’s analysis, association CEO Rick Naerebout told the Statesman in a phone interview.
Crime victims should be able to get help regardless of legal status, he said.
The bill brought by Wintrow passed nearly unanimously.
“This is just the morally correct thing to do,” Naerebout said.
