A federal judge in Northern California ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal funding for migrant children in immigration court.
Nonprofits representing unaccompanied minors challenged the administration in U.S. District Court for the Northern District California after the government notified them March 21 their contract would be terminated. The program provides legal representation to about 26,000 children, some too young to read or speak.
The groups held the government is legally obligated to provide representation to vulnerable children under a 2008 anti-trafficking law.
The government argued that funding was discretionary and the matter of a contract dispute.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco granted the nonprofits including Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center a restraining order Tuesday night.
“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,” she said referencing the anti-trafficking law.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 provides special protections to children vulnerable to exploitation. It requires the government “shall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable,” all unaccompanied children receive legal counsel to represent them in “legal proceedings.”
The relief is temporary, but Martínez-Olguín said “continued funding of legal representation for unaccompanied children promotes efficiency and fairness within the immigration system.”
Johnathan Ross, who represented the government, said despite the cuts, the groups was free to continue offering pro bono services and pointed out that other parts of the contract including a know your rights program remained.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center had begun laying off dozens of staff, as had other groups. And lawyers for them said ending the program could immediately harm children with scheduled asylum appointments and court hearings.
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