A federal judge in northern California ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal funding for migrant children to immigration.
Non -profit organizations representing unaccompanied minors challenged the administration before the American district court of the North District of California after the government informed them on March 21 that their contract would be terminated. The program provides legal representation at around 26,000 children, some of whom are too young to read or even speak.
Groups have judged that the government is legally obliged to provide representation to vulnerable children under an anti-tray law of 2008.
The government argued that funding was discretionary and the question of a contractual dispute.
The American district judge Avaceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco granted non-profit organizations, notably Tuesday evening, based in Los Angeles.
“End financing for direct legal representation for unaccompanied children, without any plan to ensure the continuity of the representation, potentially violates the expressing directive of the Congress in the TVRPA,” she said by referring to the anti-tray law.
The 2008 law on the protection of the 2008 milking victims provides special protections to children vulnerable to operations. He demands that the government “will ensure, to the greatest extent, possible”, all unaccompanied children receive a legal advisor to represent them in “legal proceedings”.
The relief is temporary, but Martínez-Olguín said that “continuous financing of legal representation for unaccompanied children promotes efficiency and equity in the immigration system”.
Johnathan Ross, who represented the government, said that despite the cuts, the groups were free to continue to offer Pro Bono services and stressed that other parts of the contract, including a Know-Yes-Rights program, remained.
The Immigrant Defenders’ Law Center had started to fire dozens of staff members, as are other groups. Their lawyers had declared that the end of the program could immediately harm children with planned asylum meetings and court hearings.
California Daily Newspapers
