Trump administration sued for halting legal aid for detained immigrants

Several nonprofits providing basic legal information to detained immigrants sued the Trump administration on Friday for halting their programs and locking them out of detention facilities.

Led by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based group that represents children and provides those basic services, the groups filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking a judge to reverse the administration’s stoppage. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

The effort is part of President Trump’s broader push to reduce resources available to detained immigrants and comes as he seeks to expand detention capacity. This week, Trump, who has made “mass deportation” a centerpiece of his campaign, announced plans to open up 30,000 beds in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the “worst criminal aliens.”

The $28-million legal service programs provide a help desk in busy immigration courtrooms including in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, basic legal information for individuals and families in detention facilities in 12 states called a “legal orientation program” and lawyers for minors, some who may be separated from their families.

Lawyers for the group argue Congress has already appropriated the funds and abruptly pausing the program is a “hasty and pretextual attack on the immigration system” that deprives detainees of information needed to secure constitutionally guaranteed due process.

The national nonprofit Acacia Center for Justice, which coordinates the programs run by 18 different nonprofits, was notified in an email by the Department of Justice to “stop work immediately,” days after Trump’s inauguration. The email cited Trump’s recent executive order as the reason. The order directs members of his Cabinet to pause funding for contracts and grants that provide services to immigrants without legal status. It calls for the termination of those contracts where it finds waste and fraud.

The lawsuit is part of a larger pushback as groups attempt to slow down Trump’s still unfolding immigration policy. Birthright citizenship was challenged in federal court and has been temporarily blocked. An immigrant rights group in Chicago sued last week, saying the administration is targeting the city with plans to conduct roundups because of its sanctuary status. And groups across the country have ratcheted up “Know Your Rights” campaigns and rapid response networks in communities.

Unlike in criminal courts, noncitizens do not have access to free counsel, but have a right to a lawyer to represent them.

The lawsuit argues that in this case, the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which operates the immigration court, found the nonprofits’ orientation programs sped up proceedings and decreased the time immigrants are detained at taxpayer expense.

The office’s determination under the new administration that the programs are “wasteful ... lacks any support or credibility,” the lawsuit contends.

And lawyers say stopping the programs — even if temporarily during an audit— could be a “fatal blow” to the nonprofits that depend on federal funding to provide these services.

During the last Trump administration, payment for the legal programs had been paused, but immigration officials still allowed providers access to work with detainees. The programs were restored amid legal threats. This time, the lawsuit states they were not allowed in detention centers and their posters inside were taken down.

The groups argue that by pulling down their “Know Your Rights” and informational signs inside detention facilities and cutting off access, immigration officials are curtailing their rights to speech in a limited public forum.

“Everybody should have due process and a chance of fair hearing, all the DOJ has done is created a jail with no transparency or accountability and it is especially cruel to stop nonprofits from helping people,” said Michael Lukens, Amica’s executive director.