Domestic violence experts and journalists grapple with Trump’s policy shifts and funding cuts

In Los Angeles, some immigrant domestic violence survivors have been reluctant to walk into support services located near a car wash or a Home Depot, said Krista Colón, executive director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

“Will they be part of a raid that happens next door?” she said. That fear “can lead to a reduction in the services they choose to access.”

That hesitancy to seek services coincides with widespread federal funding reductions for domestic violence organizations and mass layoffs for violence prevention staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, some survivor support services are removing language that’s welcoming to undocumented immigrants or the LGBTQ+ community, out of fear that such labels could lead to additional government funding losses, according to Mel Leonor Barclay, a politics reporter at The 19th.

Barclay and Colón joined Sarah DeGue, a former CDC senior scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention, to discuss troubling changes for domestic violence outreach, services, research, and prevention at the Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Domestic Violence Symposium. 

“We know a lot about what to do about domestic violence — we know that it’s a serious public health problem, and we have the tools to do something about it,” DeGue told attendees of the virtual event. “But we’re at a point now where our ability to do something with that information is really diminished.”

Losing ground on valuable research 

For decades, the CDC focused on evidence-based strategies and research to reduce domestic violence. In April, mass layoffs in the violence prevention department eroded much of those efforts in a single day, said DeGue, whose job was part of the cuts. 

“We have lost a lot of ground,” said DeGue, now the founder of a consultancy called Violence Prevention Solutions. “That really put in perspective for me how fragile this prevention infrastructure is.” 

Along with surveillance and research, the CDC team also crafted evidence-based prevention strategies, such as a teen dating violence prevention initiative called Dating Matters. Staff also provided technical assistance to support organizations nationwide interested in implementing the agency’s evidence and research. The cuts impacted much of that work, and those losses will reverberate well beyond the CDC itself, she said. 

“Violence is a leading cause of death, and we're really no longer investing anything, nearly anything, across the government, not only at CDC, in doing something to stop it,” she said. “And it's very hard for that work to continue at the state and local level without any kind of federal engagement.”

Fear silences outreach    

The first signs that domestic violence efforts might be impacted by the new administration came well before those CDC cuts, said journalist Mel Leonor Barclay. Earlier in the year, the Trump administration announced the federal agency leaders would review funding support for nonprofits to ensure spending aligned with its priorities. 

Those efforts resulted in grant cancellations for efforts that help LGBTQ+ victims of intimate partner violence, and threatened other advocacy groups that didn’t “toe the line,” she said. As a result, other domestic violence organizations preemptively self-edited outreach language that mentioned specific groups such as transgender individuals or undocumented immigrants. 

That overview matches the on-the-ground experience of advocates like Colón, who described an atmosphere of “confusion, uncertainty and fear.” Now, programs are grappling with a confusing new landscape, and wondering how to best serve all clients, she said. What happens, for example, if they offer shelter to someone with an unknown immigration status? If they respect an individual’s pronouns, will they become a target for federal funding cuts? More broadly, does helping an individual jeopardize the entire program?

But removing inclusive language can have a detrimental impact on communities that are already struggling, Colón said. For example, an immigrant survivor of domestic violence may be less likely to reach out to a program that doesn’t specifically identify itself as a safe space place for undocumented people. Other survivors may be less likely to attend family court, especially if they see immigration enforcement parked outside, she said. 

“At every step, I think folks are worried about making a wrong step,” she said. “And the consequences for wrong steps feel higher than they have felt before.”

Numerous groups have banded together to push back on these changes, with pending lawsuits resisting the funding cuts. Even so, these efforts detract from their primary work, Colón said. 

“Programs have vital work to do and they don’t need to spend their time worrying whether or not their work is going to jeopardize their funding, their ability to serve survivors,” she added. 

How to cover this evolving story 

That intersection of immigration and domestic violence offers a host of important storylines for journalists to follow. For instance, Barclay has tracked the decline in U visa applications. This specific visa was created 25 years ago to encourage victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes to come forward by easing their fears of being deported. Data from January through March shows a significant drop in the number of new U visa applications, which aligns with what immigration advocates are seeing on the ground. 

Reporters can also monitor any immigration-related detentions or arrests that arise from domestic violence calls to law enforcement, she said. Are there any people waiting for a U-visa who are being deported? 

DeGue advised reporters to focus on systemwide issues, such as how funding cuts are impacting domestic violence services and prevention work. Focusing on the success of prevention efforts from the private and nonprofit sector can be helpful and affirming, she said, pointing to efforts such as the Battered Women’s Justice Project.

Colón also values reporting that features ongoing efforts to support domestic violence survivors. Even amid a tough climate, their work persists. 

“The domestic violence field formed out of people saying that they had had enough, and that they were unwilling to tolerate violence and abuse being silenced, being dismissed as just a family matter, being dismissed as unimportant and minor,” she said. “I know that we will continue to innovate.”