Legal aid groups representing unaccompanied minors are seeking a temporary restraining order halting federal contract cancellations. Hilda Gutierrez reports.
A federal judge in San Francisco did not issue a ruling Tuesday on whether she would grant a temporary restraining order blocking recent funding cuts by the Trump administration to provide pro bono legal aid to unaccompanied immigrant children.
The TRO was sought by legal aid groups, including two in the Bay Area, after receiving notice last month that most of their federal contracts were being cancelled, potentially leaving 26,000 unaccompanied children in the country – some as young as five months old – to fend for themselves in court.
“It’s essentially asking children to represent themselves, to fill out immigration forms, to present evidence to a judge, to advocate for themselves in a system that is very difficult,” said Carson Scott, managing attorney for Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “Our immigration laws are complicated, our court systems are difficult.”
At the heart of the legal battle is a law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which plaintiffs argue in their motion “shall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable…that all unaccompanied alien children…have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings or matters and protect them from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking.”
Attorneys for the government, however, said the Office of Refugee Resettlement continues to provide legal services, such as “know your rights” presentations and legal screenings for all unaccompanied immigrant children,” but has no obligation to fund direct legal representation and has the discretion to make such decisions.
“[The TVPRA] does not create an enforceable right to government-funded representation, let alone compel the agency to maintain any particular scope of services or contractual relationship,” they argued in their response to the TRO motion.
Legal aid groups contend slashing funding for legal representation will have dire consequences and could lead to deportations and denials without due process, on top of causing chaos and delays in the immigration court system.
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U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said she needed more time to make her decision on the temporary restraining order and asked both sides to file supplemental briefings in writing with the court.
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