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Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge orders continued funding for migrant children's lawyers
A federal judge in Northern California on Tuesday extended her April injunction ordering the Trump administration to restore legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. It blocks a stop-work order issued to the Acacia Center for Justice by the Department of Interior months prior. The center uses congressional funds to pay subcontractors who provide representation to minors who are accused of entering the country illegally, free of charge. Eleven subcontractor groups for the Acacia Center sued the Trump administration over the abrupt end to publicly funded representation for thousands of migrant children. Acacia Center did not join the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, agreed with the plaintiffs, argument that ending their work would violate the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which requires federal entities to prevent and combat the exploitation of unaccompanied children through affirmed legal representation to the 'greatest extent practicable.' Acacia's Unaccompanied Children Program provides legal services to more than 26,000 children who are in or have been released from the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to its executive director, Shaina Aber. Aber said the program protects children from human trafficking, helps immigration courts run more smoothly and ensures 'a modicum of due process, so that children navigating the immigration system alone understand their rights and legal obligations.' The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on the order. The move comes as immigration activists have protested the removal of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen, along with their immigrant mother, without 'meaningful process.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Judge orders continued funding for migrant children's lawyers
A federal judge in Northern California on Tuesday extended her April injunction ordering the Trump administration to restore legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. It blocks a stop-work order issued to the Acacia Center for Justice by the Department of Interior months prior. The center uses congressional funds to pay subcontractors who provide representation to minors who are accused of entering the country illegally, free of charge. Eleven subcontractor groups for the Acacia Center sued the Trump administration over the abrupt end to publicly funded representation for thousands of migrant children. Acacia Center did not join the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, agreed with the plaintiffs, argument that ending their work would violate the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which requires federal entities to prevent and combat the exploitation of unaccompanied children through affirmed legal representation to the 'greatest extent practicable.' Acacia's Unaccompanied Children Program provides legal services to more than 26,000 children who are in or have been released from the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to its executive director, Shaina Aber. Aber said the program protects children from human trafficking, helps immigration courts run more smoothly and ensures 'a modicum of due process, so that children navigating the immigration system alone understand their rights and legal obligations.' The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on the order. The move comes as immigration activists have protested the removal of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen, along with their immigrant mother, without ' meaningful process.'
Axios
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Trump plan cuts legal help for thousands of migrant kids
Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who are in the U.S. illegally stand to lose legal help for their immigration hearings — and face being deported — because of a little-known Trump budget cut. Why it matters: The $367 million cut takes aim at the legal defense fund designed to help children and teens who've fled violence, lost their parents, or are victims of trafficking. Without lawyers it's extremely difficult for such youths — about 26,000 of them now get this legal aid — to show in court why they should be allowed to stay in the U.S. Those who can't prove their need for asylum are likely to be deported. Zoom in: The funding cut has alarmed children's advocates, who are accusing the Trump administration of trying to boost its deportation numbers by denying due process to asylum-seeking kids. "If you're trying to make a show of a mass deportation, what easier way to hit your numbers ... than to push through a bunch of kids who cannot meaningfully defend themselves?" said Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, which provides lawyers and legal support to immigrants. "What we're seeing is a full-scale assault on the due process rights of unaccompanied children," said Mickey Donovan, director of legal services at a group called Immigrant Defenders. Unaccompanied minors in asylum cases often have escaped violence such as forced labor, sexual assault or death threats, Donovan told Axios. The youths usually arrive in the U.S. from Mexico or Central America, but in recent years have been from other parts of the world as well. State of play: The Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for unaccompanied migrant children, cut the funding on March 21. The "savings" were touted on DOGE's online tracker. A coalition of legal groups has gone to court to fight the loss of the funds, which were to run through September 2026. A San Francisco judge issued a temporary restraining order against the cut on April 2. The next court hearing in the case is on Tuesday. At issue is whether ending the funding — set by Congress — would violate the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008. It requires legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children. What they're saying: "It had a good intent," border czar Tom Homan, said of the law during an interview with Axios. He wants to see it applied more narrowly to legal services for children. "Change the TVPRA, saying if you're not a victim of trafficking, no matter what country you're from, you can be removed," Homan said. An HHS spokesperson said in a statement that the agency is still complying with the law and wouldn't comment on the ongoing lawsuit. Between the lines: The legal fund helps children such as a 7-year-old boy who crossed the border recently with a smuggler who tried to make it seem like they were family. Jacob Wedemeyer of Estrella del Paso, a Catholic legal services group, worked on the boy's case. He said Border Patrol agents separated the smuggler and the boy because they doubted their story. They discovered that the boy's mother had arranged to get monthly payments from the smuggler if he were able to enter the U.S. "It's hypocritical of the administration to, on the one hand, say it wants to protect children, and then on the other hand, cut all legal representation for the children," Wedemeyer said. The day the funding was cut last month, a Sudanese teenager was scheduled to move from HHS foster care to a sponsor's care in Vermont. There he was to receive legal support from Martin Diaz's organization as a condition of his release while he awaits his asylum hearing. The teen is afraid of reuniting with his parents in Sudan because of alleged abuse, and says he's been attacked in Sudan for being a religious and ethnic minority, Martin Diaz said. Proving this in court — with documentation and a psychological evaluation — will take hundreds of hours of legal work. But Martin Diaz's group had to scale back its legal commitment when the government funding was cut.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge orders restoration of legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children
A Northern California judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration must temporarily restore legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., effectively blocking a stop-work order issued months prior. In February, the Department of the Interior informed the Acacia Center for Justice that 'the Government hereby directs your firm to stop all work associated with the scope of Contract 140D0422C0009,' which provides legal services for unaccompanied children through a network of contractor organizations. Eleven subcontractor groups sued the Trump administration over the abrupt end to publicly funded representation for thousands of migrants under the age of 18. The plaintiffs argued the move was a violation of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which requires federal entities to prevent and combat the exploitation of unaccompanied children through affirmed legal representation to the 'greatest extent practicable.' U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco upheld their grounds for objection to the order. Martínez-Olguín, an appointee of former President Biden, wrote that 'Defendants' termination of funding for direct legal representation directly interferes with Plaintiffs' missions, impeding their ability to provide the direct legal representation of unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings that is fundamental to Plaintiffs' core activities.' 'The irreparable harm resulting from Defendants' actions weighs in favor of temporary injunctive relief.' She rejected the Department of Health and Human Services's argument that it would suffer harm if compelled to spend congressionally appropriated funds for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings. 'Not so. Terminating funding for direct legal representation for unaccompanied children, without any plan to ensure continuity in representation, potentially violates Congress's express directive in the TVRPA and ORR's [Office of Refugee Resettlement] own commitments in the Foundational Rule. Moreover, courts regularly find that '[t]here is generally no public interest in the perpetuation of unlawful agency action.'' More than 100,000 people across the country have submitted letters to Congress, through Action Network, urging the restoration of legal protections for unaccompanied minors. 'Children who arrive in the U.S. unaccompanied by parents or legal guardians have often survived targeted violence, abuse, persecution, or trafficking. Legal providers working with these children provide a critical safeguard in protecting them from further harm or exploitation,' the Acacia Center for Justice said in a statement. 'Particularly at a time when the administration is expediting removal proceedings that force people through our nation's deportation system at an alarming rate, legal services for vulnerable children are more crucial than ever.' The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Immigration Crackdown Is Specifically Targeting Children Again
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. When the first Trump administration separated thousands of immigrant children from their parents, there was massive public outcry at the cruelty of family separation. Then the administration admitted something extraordinary: The cruelty was the point. Now, the cruelty is back. This time, immigration officials are threatening to prioritize unaccompanied immigrant children for deportation, while at the same time working to deprive them of access to legal services and representation. These moves in tandem would destabilize the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, putting them at heightened risk of violence, exploitation, and trafficking. They would also unlawfully deprive children of the very legal services that Congress has provided to protect them from these harms. In 2008, Congress passed the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act, or TVPRA, which provides enhanced protections for children—including immigrant children—who are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. Under the TVPRA, the government is required to 'ensure, to the greatest extent practicable' that unaccompanied immigrant children 'have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings' and 'to protect them from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking,' including from harms perpetrated by the government. Courts have interpreted the mandate that the government provide these children with legal services 'to the greatest extent practicable' to require a real, substantive effort on the government's part to get kids lawyers. Historically, this has meant that Congress has appropriated substantial funds, and relevant agencies have contracted with nonprofit legal services providers to provide representation for children. The current federal contract for legal services is administered by the Acacia Center for Justice, for which I serve on the Academic Advisory Board. That contract is ordinarily renewed by the agency on a regular basis. The current contract is set to expire at the end of March, and for the first time in nearly two decades—despite continued Congressional funding—its future is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that failing to renew the contract would be catastrophic. The impact that legal services have for these kids can hardly be overstated: Children who have lawyers are nearly 300 percent more likely to obtain relief from an immigration judge than those who don't. This is not because lawyers are finding secret loopholes in the law. Rather, it's because lawyers are adults who are trained in and understand the law, and who can facilitate a child's ability to tell their story to obtain the relief to which they are legally entitled. Immigration law is a complex web of dense statutes and regulations, precise procedural requirements, and high evidentiary demands, conducted through proceedings that often involve multiple agencies and courts. The government is represented by its own capable attorneys who prosecute children in immigration court. It is absurd to think that children could navigate this system and effectively assert their rights alone. Under federal law, and for their own physical safety, they should not have to. And yet, the Trump administration is trying to undermine the existing statutory scheme that protects children. On Feb. 18, as part of its chaotic and destabilizing efforts to defund the federal government, the Trump administration suddenly issued an unlawful stop-work order requiring that organizations that provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children cease their operations indefinitely. Three days later, just as capriciously, the administration changed its mind and rescinded the order. There is no doubt that the administration will continue its efforts to undermine access to counsel for unaccompanied immigrant children. This is an administration led by a president who has shown an unabashed willingness to interfere with access to counsel across the board. On Feb. 25, President Donald Trump signed an executive action directing agencies to revoke security clearances for all attorneys employed by the law firm representing former special counsel Jack Smith, which would make it impossible for these attorneys and firms to work on cases involving classified information. The executive action further penalized the law firm—simply for representing someone the president dislikes—by effectively barring the government from doing business with the firm. While signing it, Trump said, 'Wait, I just want to savor this one, please.' He then indicated that he would be 'doing this with other firms as time goes by,' issuing a clear threat to lawyers who dare to challenge him and his policies. A week later, Trump issued an even broader (and unconstitutional) executive action targeting another law firm—this time, Perkins Coie—for the 'dishonest and dangerous activity' of, basically, representing Trump's political rivals. Weaponizing the office of the president to specifically target lawyers who represent people or causes that Donald Trump disfavors is a dangerous move that violates the rule of law and pushes us from a government of laws toward a government of principally one man. Just because Trump has declared himself to be the king doesn't mean he actually is one. The president's powers are limited under our Constitution, and any presidential action to unilaterally eliminate access to counsel for unaccompanied children would violate the substance and the spirit of existing laws duly enacted by Congress. As I tell my constitutional law students, our federal government is built on a system of checks and balances that requires coordination and pushback among the branches to work well. When the president overreaches in his assertions of executive power, it's imperative that our other institutions—Congress and the courts—stand up for due process and the rule of law. And, in a democracy like ours, it's imperative that We, the People, hold our government to account when it falls short. In this case, holding our government to account includes ensuring that unaccompanied immigrant children continue to receive access to legal services. As the Trump administration moves to prioritize unaccompanied children for deportation, these kids will need lawyers to ensure that they have a fighting chance to have what we all want for our own kids—safety, security, and a chance to thrive as they grow up.
