A federal judge in Northern California on Tuesday extended her April injunction ordering the Trump administration to restore legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S.
It blocks a stop-work order issued to the Acacia Center for Justice by the Department of Interior months prior. The center uses congressional funds to pay subcontractors who provide representation to minors who are accused of entering the country illegally, free of charge.
Eleven subcontractor groups for the Acacia Center sued the Trump administration over the abrupt end to publicly funded representation for thousands of migrant children. Acacia Center did not join the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, agreed with the plaintiffs, argument that ending their work would violate the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which requires federal entities to prevent and combat the exploitation of unaccompanied children through affirmed legal representation to the “greatest extent practicable.”
Acacia’s Unaccompanied Children Program provides legal services to more than 26,000 children who are in or have been released from the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to its executive director, Shaina Aber.
Aber said the program protects children from human trafficking, helps immigration courts run more smoothly and ensures “a modicum of due process, so that children navigating the immigration system alone understand their rights and legal obligations.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the order. The move comes as immigration activists have protested the removal of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen, along with their immigrant mother, without “meaningful process.”