Latest news with #TraffickingVictimsProtectionReauthorizationAct
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
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
Guatemalan workers sue Iowa egg company, alleging human trafficking
Six Guatemalans filed a lawsuit alleging a Centrum Valley Farms supervisor kept this gun displayed in his office and threatened them with deportation as part of a human trafficking operation at the Clarion egg farm. (Main photo courtesy Wright County Assessor's Office; inset photo from federal court filings) Six Guatemalan nationals who worked for Iowa industrial egg supplier Centrum Valley Farms are suing the company alleging human trafficking and claiming they and other immigrant workers were denied overtime pay and threatened with deportation in retaliation for their complaints. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa by attorneys for Guatemalan citizens Kenny Augusto Tetzaguic Lux, Gerver Noel Marroquin Argueta, Isaias Tevalan Lopez, Consuelo Esperanza Lux Tepaz, Cecilia Angelica Bernal Cobo and Juan Carlos Tetzaguic Lux, all of whom lived in Belmond, Eagle Grove, Clarion or Webster City while working for Centrum Valley Farms in recent years. Named as defendants are Centrum Valley Farms of Clarion and company manager Jose Cornejo. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for harassment, discrimination and retaliation; wrongful discharge; human trafficking related to forced labor; violations of wage-and-hour laws related to overtime pay, and violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The plaintiffs claim Centrum Valley Farms recruited them to work at the company's Clarion egg farm and packaging facility and helped them obtain work-authorization documents from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, with Cornejo acting as their supervisor. On a daily basis, Cornejo, who is Mexican, made 'repeated unwelcome comments disparaging the plaintiffs for their Guatemalan national origin,' the lawsuit claims. Cornejo is accused of telling the plaintiffs all Guatemalans were lazy and that he wanted to replace them with Mexicans or Americans. When the Guatemalans complained about Cornejo to other managers, the harassment allegedly grew worse with Cornejo threatening to have them deported. 'Cornejo even brought a firearm to work, showed it to the plaintiffs, and displayed it in his office to intimidate the plaintiffs and silence their complaints,' the lawsuit claims. Cornejo also is accused of threatening to turn the Guatemalans into Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they tried to voluntarily leave their positions at the company. 'Centrum Valley Farms wanted obedient workers to perform difficult and undesirable job duties that many U.S. citizens are unwilling to perform,' the lawsuit alleges. The company eventually terminated the Guatemalans' employment 'in retaliation for their complaints,' the lawsuit adds. According to the plaintiffs, Centrum Valley Farms hired Kenny Augusto Tetzaguic Lux under a pseudonym in 2016 because he did not have legal status to be in the United States. After working at Centrum Valley Farms for more than six years, the company's management allegedly help him obtain documents to legally work in the United States, according to the lawsuit. Later, company officials allegedly insisted that Lux keep working for Centrum Valley Farms, threatening to blacklist him to discourage him from seeking employment elsewhere, the lawsuit claims. As a poultry barn maintenance worker, Lux was allegedly instructed to keep working each day until all of his tasks were completed, resulting in him working more than 40 hours per week, but without overtime pay, according to the lawsuit. On Jan. 25, 2023, Cornejo allegedly brought a firearm to his office and displayed it on his desk to intimidate Lux and the other Guatemalans, according to the lawsuit. On Oct. 7, 2023, Lux filed his first complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission alleging discrimination based on his national origin, and on May 14, 2024, after being disciplined for insubordination, Lux was fired. One of the other plaintiffs alleges Cornejo referred to him as his 'faithful dog,' his 'slave' and as his 'Guatemalan wetback,' while making him apply pesticides in chicken houses without the necessary protective equipment. The defendants in the case have yet to file a response to the allegations. Officials with Centrum Valley Farms did not return calls Tuesday from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
