On February 4, 2025, Maine Senator Susan Collins voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, and in April 2025 Bondi's Justice Department canceled about $820 million in grants for violence prevention, victim services and youth programs. Under Bondi, thousands of FBI employees and most ATF agents were moved to immigration work.
On June 5, 2026, Collins voted against amendments to the immigration enforcement bill to fund local police hiring and Justice Department youth mentoring, then voted for the bill, which gave immigration agencies $70 billion. In October 2025 she voted against three amendments to limit the use of troops and federal officers in American cities, where the National Guard remains deployed in Washington, D.C.
Susan Collins's Votes and Confirmations on Crime and Public Safety
- Collins Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, Whose Justice Department Canceled $820 Million in Crime Prevention Grants. Susan Collins voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025 and Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025, when he was confirmed 52 to 46. On April 22, 2025, the department terminated 373 competitive grants, and The defunded grants were initially valued at about $820 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice, including violence intervention, victim services, youth and police co-responder programs. A federal judge who dismissed the grantees' lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction wrote that the cuts were "likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence". Terminated awards included 59 grants from the Office for Victims of Crime, and of about 225 appeals there were only 35 grants restored and 17 denied as of December 2025, according to a letter from House Democrats citing Reuters. In September 2025 the department rewrote the community violence intervention program so that Now, only city, county, and tribal governments are permitted to apply, shutting out the community groups that run the work.
- Collins Voted to Confirm the Attorney General Whose Justice Department Moved FBI and ATF Agents to Immigration Work. After Susan Collins voted to confirm Pam Bondi, the Justice Department shifted federal agents from crime cases to immigration enforcement. In total, 9,161 people at the FBI worked on immigration, according to records obtained by The Intercept, and by September 2025 most ATF agents had been pulled into immigration task forces. In 2025 gun prosecutions fell more than 10 percent in 40 of the nation's 94 federal districts, Reuters found.
- Collins Voted Against Money for Local Police Hiring and Youth Mentoring, Then for $70 Billion in Immigration Enforcement. On June 5, 2026, Susan Collins voted against an amendment To appropriate amounts for local law enforcement hiring programs, which failed 45 to 53, and against an amendment to fund Justice Department youth mentoring programs, which failed 46 to 53. The same day she voted for the bill, which passed 52 to 47. "The bill would provide $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement" and Customs and Border Protection, NOTUS reported, a year after the Justice Department cut youth and violence prevention grants such as the Houston Teen and Police Service Academy, a mentoring program in Houston that had to reduce its staff.
- Collins Voted Against Limits on National Guard Deployments to American Cities in October 2025. On October 9, 2025, Susan Collins voted against three amendments to the annual defense bill: one to clarify certain limitations on full-time National Guard duty in a state without its governor's consent, one To limit the provision of support by the Armed Forces to civilian law enforcement activities, and one To limit the use of Federal law enforcement officers for crowd control. Each failed short of the 60 votes needed. A federal judge ruled that the Los Angeles deployment violated a federal law against military members conducting domestic law enforcement, warning of "a national police force with the President as its chief". The Congressional Budget Office put the cost of the deployments at approximately $496 million from June through December 2025, and the Defense Department says the National Guard will remain deployed in Washington, D.C., through Inauguration Day 2029.
What the Public Safety Decisions Susan Collins Backed Mean for Maine
- Federal enforcement in Maine. In January 2026, Homeland Security agents under Secretary Kristi Noem, whom Collins voted to confirm, arrested more than 100 people in Maine in one week, and NPR reported that it's mostly people without criminal records who are being arrested.
- Guard deployments. About 9,700 troops from across the country have served in the nation's capital since August 2025, and about half of Americans oppose deploying National Guard troops to their town or a major city in the state they live in, an NPR/Ipsos poll found in September 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Collins on Crime and public safety
What is Susan Collins's record on crime and public safety under Trump?
Susan Collins voted to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose Justice Department canceled about $820 million in crime prevention and victim services grants in April 2025 and moved agents to immigration work. In June 2026 she voted against funding local police hiring and youth mentoring and for $70 billion in immigration enforcement, and in October 2025 she voted against limits on National Guard deployments in cities.
How did Susan Collins vote on local police hiring money in the 2026 immigration enforcement bill?
Susan Collins voted on June 5, 2026 against an amendment to the immigration enforcement bill to fund local law enforcement hiring programs, which failed 45 to 53, and then voted for the bill's $70 billion for immigration agencies.
How did Susan Collins vote on limiting National Guard deployments to cities?
Susan Collins voted on October 9, 2025 against three defense bill amendments that would have limited National Guard duty without a governor's consent, military support for civilian law enforcement and the use of federal officers for crowd control, and each failed. The Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. is set to last through Inauguration Day 2029.
Last updated: 2026-10-25