US judge blocks Trump cuts to legal aid for migrant children

By Nate Raymond

A federal judge ordered U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to temporarily restore funding for programs that provide legal services for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in San Francisco late on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from cutting off funding that advocates said was crucial to ensuring that 26,000 children could keep their attorneys.

"The maintenance of funding for direct legal representation services furthers the critical public interests of ensuring children have access to legal representation and protection from human trafficking," Martinez-Olguin wrote.

Nonprofit legal service providers who had previously received funding for their work from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement sued last week after the administration moved to stop the funding.

Sam Hsieh, a lawyer for the nonprofits at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, in a statement hailed the ruling, which "recognizes the strong merits of our case and the immense harm of withdrawing funding for unaccompanied kids' legal representation."

The administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Cancellation of the funding occurred amid the Republican president's broader campaign to crack down on immigration and humanitarian programs that he says go beyond the intent of U.S. law.

The funding that the Trump administration moved to cancel was disbursed through Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit that had been contracted to manage a network of 89 legal services organizations nationally that provide representation to unaccompanied children.

The contract was issued on behalf of HHS by the U.S. Department of Interior, which in a March 21 letter ordered Acacia to stop all work.

Martinez-Olguin, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, in her decision noted that Congress has consistently appropriated funds to represent children in immigration proceedings.

She said the nonprofits "raise serious questions" as to whether the administration's actions violated its obligations under the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.

That law requires the government to ensure all unaccompanied children receive legal counsel to represent them in legal proceedings and to protect them from mistreatment, exploitation and trafficking.