Trump cuts off most help for immigrants with mental illness or cognitive disabilities
The groups, which filed the lawsuit in District of Columbia federal district court late Monday, said about 200 people were getting services through the terminated program known as the National Qualified Representative Program.
Attorneys said the end of the representation leaves some of the most vulnerable immigrants — those with mental health issues, cognitive disabilities, traumatic brain injuries — in danger. The program ended in every state except for Arizona, California and Washington, where it was originally established as part of a legal settlement.
'People who suffer from mental illness in a lot of countries around the world are at grave risk of torture and death,' and without counsel, deportation could subject them to those conditions, David Faherty, supervising attorney for adult detention with the National Immigrant Justice Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told NBC News.
NBC News has reached out to the White House and Justice Department for comment. The Department of Homeland Security deferred to the Justice Department on comment.
The program is the latest target of the Trump administration as it seeks to accelerate deportations and dismantle legal programs that support immigrants. The administration also has been trying to choke off money that pays for immigration attorneys who assist unaccompanied immigrant children. It ended orientation programs for detainees that informed them of their rights, and it plans to replace lawyers representing children and parents or guardians separated at the border under the previous Trump administration with the administration's own lawyers.
In a March memo, President Donald Trump took issue with immigration lawyers, and directed the attorney general to take action against them in certain circumstances.
The April 25 termination of a contract with Acacia Center for Justice, the contractor that subcontracts with several of the legal groups that sued, had immediate impact, Faherty said.
Faherty had informed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and an immigration court that a man held in ICE custody had mental illness, which he learned from a call by a family member to the National Immigrant Justice Center's hotline. An immigrant judge determined that the immigrant was not competent and needed a lawyer. That same day, the Trump administration pulled the plug on the program that would have provided one.
Faherty said usually once an attorney is mandated, the National Immigrant Justice Center would hear from the court to provide legal counsel. But it has not been contacted.
Along with assistance going through the process, the legal groups help set up forensic, medical and psychological evaluations; ensure there is access to treatment; or sometimes help immigrants get in touch with a lost family member, attorneys said.
The immigrants' circumstances run the gamut, with some who are homeless, others whose mental illness has only begun to emerge, some who suffered traumatic brain injuries, and elder immigrants experiencing dementia. There are also those who have been diagnosed with mental illness and were undergoing treatment before ending up in ICE custody.
The program is popular with immigration judges because it makes their job easier, since they can leave the work of getting evaluations to attorneys, Faherty said.
'Having counsel in this situation, it's more efficient. It moves much more smoothly through the immigration process than if you don't have counsel,' he said.
The program the administration ended stems from a 2013 lawsuit in which the main plaintiff, José Antonio Franco-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant with a cognitive disability, was detained for almost five years without a hearing or a lawyer.
The settlement of the 2010 suit applied only to immigrants in the states of Arizona, California and Washington. But the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration adopted a policy to extend the 'enhanced' protections for immigrants to those in all other states.
'The government's action in cutting funding for court-appointed counsel for people not competent to represent themselves in immigration court is not just heartless and cruel, but also discriminatory against people with disabilities,' Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, another plaintiff, stated in a news release.
Veronica Barba, a California attorney who handles cases covered by the terminated program, said the difference since the settlement is like night and day.
'People were languishing in the courts and detention centers for years and years,' Barba said. 'The way I look at it, it could be any one of us who falls ill one day.'
The lawsuit's plaintiffs include American Gateways, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Estrella del Paso, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy, National Immigrant Justice Center, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
22 minutes ago
- New York Post
Senate makes progress in averting a gov't shutdown much earlier than usual
The Senate took a significant step towards averting an impending partial government shutdown by passing a tranche of funding bills much earlier than usual. Senators approved three of the 12 appropriations bills Friday needed to forestall a partial shutdown, including ones to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, new military facilities, and Congress itself. 'We are on the verge of an accomplishment that we have not done since 2018, and that is, pass appropriations bills across the Senate floor prior to the August recess,' Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R–Maine) cheered before the upper chamber reached the feat. 'That is exercising our constitutional responsibility for the power of the purse.' The three appropriations bills that clear the Senate are typically viewed as the less controversial ones to get across the finish line. Still, it comes amid significant hurdles toward preventing the looming autumn shutdown. 4 Sen. Susan Collins helped broker the deal to get the three appropriations bills passed through the Senate. REUTERS 4 Senate Majority Leader John Thune has eaten into the August recess to clear up the upper chamber's lengthy to-do list. Democrats widely see the shutdown fight as a rare instance in which they have leverage in Congress and have been vexed by President Trump's use of impoundment and rescissions to make spending cuts without their approval. Moreover, Congress hasn't actually passed the 12 appropriations bills to properly fund the government on time since 1997. Each fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1, Congress is tasked with funding the government to prevent a partial shutdown. Congress has typically relied on a mechanism known as continuing resolutions, or CRs, to put government spending on autopilot for stretches of time. CRs and appropriations bills are subject to the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster in the Senate and must be bipartisan, which is why Congress typically struggles with the process. 4 Sen. Patty Murray said the deal will help prevent some of the cuts Democrats opposed. The current fiscal year is running on what turned into a yearlong CR, and there have been some murmurs in the House about doing so again for Fiscal Year 2026. Senators voted 87-9 on Friday for a two-bill minibus to fund the VA and Department of Agriculture. They then voted 81–15 on the third appropriations bill to fund Congress. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democratic appropriator, argued the small-scale deal 'rejects damaging cuts from Trump and House Republicans,' despite progressive complaints. The Senate still has nine more appropriations bills to take up: Commerce, Defense, Energy, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, State and Transportation. The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved about half of those, inching them closer to a full chamber vote. 4 Oftentimes, government shutdown fights come down to the wire. REUTERS Those appropriations bills will need to be green-lit by the House of Representatives, which is on August recess, and signed into law by President Trump. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has eaten into the August recess while seeking to wrangle through key Trump nominations and chip away at the backlog. He is currently negotiating with Democrats on a deal to expedite that process.
The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Texas House committee advances GOP-friendly map
A Texas state House panel on Saturday advanced proposed congressional maps that aim to make the Lone Star State's district lines even friendlier to Republicans. The Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting voted to advance a set of maps that would give Republicans five more pick-up opportunities ahead of 2026 and would impact lawmakers in the Dallas-Forth, Austin, Houston and Rio Grande Valley areas. The move tees up a floor vote in the House, where the map will be considered by all members. With an 88-62 GOP majority in the state House, the maps are expected to pass the lower chamber easily. President Trump is looking to pick up five seats in Texas as Republicans brace for an unfavorable political environment in the midterms next year. Republicans are considering pick-up opportunities in Missouri, Indiana and Florida as well. Texas Democrats have limited options to respond, given Republicans enjoy a decisive majority in the state legislature and in the governor's office, though the map is expected to draw litigation. Democrats could try to break quorum — the number of lawmakers needed in order to conduct business — as they did in 2003 when Texas Republicans engaged in mid-cycle redistricting, yet it would do little to thwart eventually passing a new map. Democrats are also weighing their options for mid-cycle redistricting in blue states as a response. California is seriously considering several options – either through a ballot initiative or through the state legislature – to redraw its maps. Democratic governors in New York, New Jersey and Illinois are leaving the door open to considering redrawing their maps. The redistricting tit-for-tat is paving the way for a tumultuous election year that could upend multiple maps, setting off a scramble over which districts candidates run in and potentially impacting when primaries happen depending on whether those issues can be resolved quickly.
Axios
22 minutes ago
- Axios
"No piecemeal deals": Witkoff tells hostage families Trump wants full Gaza agreement
White House envoy Steve Witkoff told hostage families on Saturday that President Trump wants to "shift" the Gaza policy from trying to get a partial and phased Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal to reaching a comprehensive deal that ends the war and returns all remaining hostages at once, according to a statement by the families and recordings from the meeting. Why it matters: Witkoff's remarks, during a two-hour meeting in Tel Aviv with dozens of families of hostages held by Hamas, were an acknowledgment that the approach Israel and the U.S. have pursued over the last six months to try and reach a partial and incremental ceasefire and hostage deal has failed. Behind the scenes: Two members of the hostage families who were in the room said Witkoff listened for a long time to every family member who wanted to speak. "We never have these meetings with senior Israeli government officials," one family member said. Witkoff told the families he doesn't have "perfect news" for them but stressed he believes "we are going to be successful here ultimately" for reasons he said he can't discuss at the moment. "President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once - no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work," Witkoff said. "Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time... we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it." Catch up quick: Trump and Witkoff had a big role in closing a ceasefire and hostage deal in January, days before the inauguration. That deal led to the release of 33 hostages, but was supposed to open negotiations on a comprehensive deal to end the war and release all remaining hostages. But the Trump administration allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to violate that deal by not negotiating seriously on its next phase. Israel resumed the war unilaterally in March. Since then, Netanyahu preferred to try and get a partial and incremental ceasefire and hostage deal. He did that for domestic political reasons, so as not to have to commit to ending the war. Trump preferred a comprehensive deal, but despite his reservations, endorsed Netanyahu's approach during the ensuing rounds of talks, which thus far have all failed. In a meeting with hostage families 10 days ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear he and Trump still don't think the incremental approach is the right one and hinted that it might be time to explore a more comprehensive approach to end the war and free all the remaining hostages. State of play: Witkoff discussed with Netanyahu on Thursday the stalemate in the negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, an Israeli official said in a briefing with reporters. The official said Netanyahu and Witkoff discussed the possibility of moving from an incremental and partial Gaza deal to a comprehensive deal. "An understanding is being established between Israel and the U.S. that, in light of Hamas' rejectionist position, there is a need to shift from a framework for the release of some of the hostages to a framework for the release of all the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip," the Israeli official said. Yes, but: A senior Israeli official and two other sources involved in the negotiations said a final decision to change course hasn't been made yet and stressed that the partial deal for a 60-day ceasefire in return for the release of 10 live hostages and 18 deceased hostages is still on the table. "We are at a crossroads. Hamas is taking its time and not engaging, but this could change in the near future," the official said. The big picture: Witkoff told the families on Saturday that any deal for ending the war in Gaza will have to include Hamas demilitarizing. "Hamas has said it is prepared to demilitarize. But even over and above that, multiple Arab governments are now demanding that Hamas demilitarizes. So we are very very close to a solution around this war," he said. Hamas responded to Witkoff's comment that were published in the Israeli press and stressed it will not disarm before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
