Trump administration halts legal representation for 26,000 immigrant children
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The Trump administration has halted a program that provided lawyers to nearly 26,000 immigrant children, some too young to read or speak, who are or were under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The children — about 4,000 of whom live in California — face deportation, and many don’t have parents or legal guardians in the country.
The Interior Department on Tuesday ordered the Acacia Center for Justice, which coordinates the federally funded program that paid the attorneys, “to stop work.” In its letter, the agency cited contracting rules to justify the program pause, but did not offer clear reasons why.
“The stop work order is being implemented due to causes outside of your control and should not be misconstrued as an indication of poor performance by your firm,” the letter said.
The departments of Interior and Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, did not respond to a request for comment.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to weaken portions of the immigration system that support detainees. The orders come as an administration advisory group, which billionaire aide Elon Musk calls the Department of Government Efficiency, has been firing federal workers throughout the government and eliminating programs that it says don’t align with the administration’s objectives.
The move rattled immigrant rights group that have been representing children, some who are just months old.
“This is a catastrophe that we had hoped we could avoid,” said Michael Lukens, executive director of Amica Center for Immigrant Rights in Washington. “Many NGOs will have to close. It signals a propensity right now to get rid of funding without any thought of human impact.”
Acacia receives about $200 million in federal funds annually as part of a five-year contract that is up for renewal next year. It works with 99 service providers across the country to offer children legal counsel, and gives tens of thousands more children basic legal information and other legal services.
Lukens said Amica is considering many remedies, possibly including a lawsuit to stop the action.
Some of the children who are part of the program have been abused, persecuted or trafficked.
“This means that children are expected to show up in court, as of tomorrow, on their own, with no legal counsel, and try to defend themselves from deportation in an adversarial system,” said Daniela Hernández Chong Cuy. Her small Pasadena office represents 63 children from 2 to 17 years old.
And while she said her oath ethically obligates her to defend these children, she doesn’t know how the office will survive in its current form if payments don’t come in. About three-quarters of her clients fall under the contract.
“The system is expecting these kids to be able to explain to the court their reasons why they fear going back, file legal applications and legal papers, then translate these documents,” she said. “These are children with literally no adults here in the United States. So they have nobody to refer to, to say, ‘Hey, can you help me find a private attorney?’ These are kids, literally.”
The program dates back two decades and grew as the number of unaccompanied minors rose at the southern U.S. border and advocates increased pressure under the Obama administration, which pushed to quickly arraign juveniles whether or not they had counsel.
“The effect of this move is that thousands of children will be unlawfully deported, and that will surely include children whom Congress intended for the immigration law to protect,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA, who was part of a lawsuit against the Obama administration. “It’s cruel.”
Children do not have the right to a court-appointed attorney, though the U.S. recognizes the right to a lawyer. According to Acacia, since 2017, about 57% of children with pending cases have legal representation, a figure that had dropped from previous years.
“The administration’s decision to suspend this program undermines due process, disproportionately impacts vulnerable children, and puts children who have already experienced severe trauma at risk for further harm or exploitation,” Shania Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in a statement.
“This decision flies in the face of decades of work and bipartisan cooperation spent ensuring children who have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking have child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests.”