logo
#

Latest news with #UnaccompaniedChildrenProgram

New Mexico Immigrant Law Center feeling impact of federal cuts to unaccompanied minors program
New Mexico Immigrant Law Center feeling impact of federal cuts to unaccompanied minors program

Yahoo

time27-03-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

New Mexico Immigrant Law Center feeling impact of federal cuts to unaccompanied minors program

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Amid the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, on Friday, the federal government ended contracts with programs across the country that provide legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children. One of those terminated contracts was with the Unaccompanied Children Program at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. Story continues below Investigation: DWI cases Albuquerque officers and paralegal made disappear Crime: Santa Fe Police identify man who was killed in hit-and-run Don't Miss: Rio Rancho to review plans to redevelop old country club golf course 'It was devastating to be honest with you,' said Andres Santiago, Associate Managing Attorney at NMILC. 'The immigration system is a complicated system. We know this. And to expect a child to have to navigate that on their own is unconscionable.' He also noted how the immigration court for the state is in El Paso. With NMILC's help, the unaccompanied minors can get help moving the hearings to virtual hearings. He said their clients range in age from high school to just a few years old. 'They're fleeing really horrible situations, and for a lot of these kids, their parents or legal guardians aren't with them,' he said. According to NMILC, more than 300 kids statewide face deportation. 'The impact is huge,' Santiago said of the funding cut. The cut in funding directly impacts 212 of the law center's cases, with some kids having court dates as soon as Friday. NMILC is reviewing its cases and plans to continue representing its clients while they can. 'We have a legal obligation to these kids, we have a legal agreement with these kids to represent them as their attorneys,' said Santiago. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian. The deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services told the Associated Press in an emailed statement that the department 'continues to meet the legal requirements established' by the Act, as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated. A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated 'for the Government's convenience.' Meanwhile, NMILC is scrambling to find funding. It is now heavily relying on donations and has launched a campaign to raise $1.5 million to make up for the loss of funding. 'Administration after administration have realized the special protections that are needed for unaccompanied children,' said Santiago. 'I understand there's going to be critics on everything, but I think we can all agree that kids deserve a fair shot in the country regardless of whether they're born in the country or not.' According to the NMILC, the cuts to this funding leave more than 26,000 unaccompanied minors without access to legal counsel nationwide. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hundreds of migrant kids in Michigan may lose legal help after Trump ends program
Hundreds of migrant kids in Michigan may lose legal help after Trump ends program

Yahoo

time26-03-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Hundreds of migrant kids in Michigan may lose legal help after Trump ends program

About 800 migrant children in Michigan may soon lack legal representation in courts after the administration of President Donald Trump abruptly shut down most of a program that helped pay for attorneys and other legal assistance. Immigrant activists said the Trump administration's action is a cruel move that will lead to unaccompanied minors in Michigan being unable to get a fair hearing and lead to more abuse and deportations. One immigrant advocate in Michigan calls it the worst attack on immigrant children since the family separation crisis in 2018 during Trump's first term, when some migrant children were separated from families. On Friday, the Trump administration sent a termination of services notice to the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and similar groups across the country to end its Unaccompanied Children Program, which is paid for with government funds. The program allowed children who arrived in the U.S. without a parent to be represented by attorneys in immigration courts. Lawyers who are trained in how to work with vulnerable children with language barriers are needed to properly defend them in court, said Christine Sauvé, manager of policy and communication at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Children sometimes travel to the U.S. on their own to escape hardships or to reach other family members who are already in the U.S. The 800 children in Michigan helped by the legal program are part of 26,000 children across the country who will be affected, advocates said. It's the latest move by Trump to toughen immigration enforcement as he vows to deport a record number of immigrants, often linking them to crime. Earlier this year, Trump shut down another legal program to help adults in immigration courts, but after a lawsuit, that program was started up again. Since 2017, the legal program for unaccompanied children at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center has helped represent almost 1,400 children. In addition, the center has provided 5,686 "Know Your Rights" sessions and 4,061 legal screenings, and identified 6,158 potential pathways for relief for children. "These numbers result in real, meaningful changes in the lives of children and families, children who grow up to thrive and be part of our communities," Sauvé told the Free Press on Tuesday. "It is difficult to find replacement attorneys for 800 children," she added. "There's things that (regular) attorneys may not be familiar with, in terms of: taking breaks during an interview to allow the child to play or take a break. There's specific language resources: Many of the children speak minority languages that aren't commonly spoken here, and so sometimes providing that translation or interpretation can be hard for pro bono attorneys to take on." Some advocates say the shuttering of the program could lead to violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which helps protect children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian. Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the placement of unaccompanied children, told the Free Press by email Tuesday their department 'continues to meet the legal requirements established' by the Act and the Flores settlement of 1997 that resulted from a lawsuit, creating rules to protect immigrant children in U.S. custody. "We are rolling back decades of progress on protecting the rights of immigrant children," said Susan Reed, director at MIRC. "Children with representation are more likely to win their cases and unrepresented children tend to lose, so this action will change the course of our clients' whole lives.' Reed called it "the largest attack on immigrant children in Michigan since we faced the family separation crisis in 2018.' The move could also lead to MIRC, one of the leading immigrant advocacy groups in Michigan, having to eliminate 80% of its staff, Sauvé said. More: Private for-profit company secures ICE contract to house immigrants in Michigan prison MIRC is currently looking for other ways to keep the program running through donations or other means, but it's unclear whether it can survive. The Acacia Center for Justice in Washington, D.C. contracted with the U.S. government on the legal program for unaccompanied children. Acacia then subcontracted with various groups, such as the Michigan center. 'The administration's decision to partially terminate this program flies in the face of decades of work and bipartisan cooperation spent ensuring children who have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking have child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests," Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in a statement. In a separate action, the Trump administration also ended this week a rule that had restricted the government from sharing information on the legal status of sponsors, often family members, of unaccompanied migrant children to law enforcement, Reuters reported. The move could lead to family members not coming forward to sponsor children who need their help out of fear of themselves being targeted by immigration agents. Reuters contributed to this report. Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@ or X @nwarikoo This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Migrant children in Michigan lose legal help as Trump ends program

Funding cut impacts Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, affects immigrant children's rights
Funding cut impacts Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, affects immigrant children's rights

Yahoo

time25-03-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Funding cut impacts Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, affects immigrant children's rights

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy was set to receive $900,000 in annual funding from Acacia in a contract renewing on April 1. However, the majority of this contract was cancelled on March 21, effective immediately. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has terminated nearly all of the legal work by the Acacia Center for Legal Justice. Acacia contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied immigrant children from a few months old to 17 years old, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as 'know your rights' clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters. The Advocacy Center can still provide 'know your rights' clinics, but can no longer represent children when they go to immigration court. 'Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy currently has more than 300 active cases affected by this funding cut, impacting children who have suffered abuse, neglect, abandonment or other forms of harm. Without legal representation, these vulnerable children face insurmountable barriers to securing safety and stability. Terminating the Unaccompanied Children Program will leave hundreds of children defenseless in a complex legal system that was never designed for them to navigate alone. This decision is not just a bureaucratic shift — it is a direct attack on children's rights and well-being.' Kara Moskowitz, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy According to the Congressional Research Service in 2021, attorneys have a dramatic impact on children's cases; immigration judges were almost 100 times more likely to grant legal relief to unaccompanied children with counsel than to those without. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

‘Chaos' Looms For Unaccompanied Kids As Trump Cancels Funding For Their Lawyers
‘Chaos' Looms For Unaccompanied Kids As Trump Cancels Funding For Their Lawyers

Yahoo

time25-03-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

‘Chaos' Looms For Unaccompanied Kids As Trump Cancels Funding For Their Lawyers

The Trump administration is stripping funding for legal representation from tens of thousands of children who are unaccompanied migrants in the United States, a move immigration lawyers warn violates their legal rights and will leave minors vulnerable to abuse. 'Picture yourself thrown into a detention center in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, where you don't understand that country's complex legal system, only to be told that now you must fend for yourself, assert your rights and seek whatever protections that country might offer you,' Jennie Giambastiani, a retired immigration judge, said Tuesday during a call organized by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. 'Now picture yourself as a child in that situation,' she added. Government-funded attorneys changed that dynamic, Giambastiani said, because they worked hard 'to make sure that the children understood the proceedings and could present their claims in court.' Most unaccompanied children can't afford to hire their own legal representation. Without those lawyers, Giambastiani said separately, the immigration courts would be thrown into 'chaos': 'The judge won't have any sense that this child understands why [they're] there in court.' The Trump administration has decided to cancel $200 million in annual funding for legal representation for unaccompanied minors, ABC News first reported Friday, citing an internal Trump administration memo. The New York Times matched that report. According to ABC, the cut ended funding for the recruitment of attorneys to represent migrant children, though it did not cut informational presentations for children that are delivered in detention centers. Notably, the administration had previously issued a stop-work order concerning the same services last month but reversed it a few days later. Now, the legal representation funding is apparently being slashed altogether. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is housed within the Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for overseeing the care of unaccompanied migrant children, including in contracted shelters, did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment. But the federal webpage for the contract now shows that it was 'terminated for convenience' on Friday. And the Acacia Center for Justice, which runs the Unaccompanied Children Program that provides the legal services in question — and which serves 26,000 children through a network of organizations — confirmed the cut in a statement Friday. 'The administration's decision to partially terminate this program flies in the face of decades of work and bipartisan cooperation spent ensuring children who have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking have child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests,' the group said. By Monday, over 100 organizations involved in Acacia's Unaccompanied Children Program signed onto a statement opposing the cut. 'Abandoning [children] while fast-tracking their deportation cases will lead to mass due process violations and wrongful denials of protection,' Christine Lin, director of training and technical assistance at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, said in the statement. 'In cases with life-or-death stakes, this will mean children being deported to countries where they face grave harm. We urge the administration to reverse this decision and immediately restore legal services for unaccompanied children.' 'This brazen, heartless act endangers children's lives,' said Ashley Harrington, managing attorney of the children's program at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, or RMIAN. 'RMIAN represents child survivors of trafficking, abuse and trauma, including children as young as 2 years old,' Harrington said. 'Children cannot be expected to navigate the harsh and complicated immigration legal system without an attorney. This administration wants to force us to abandon them to face ICE and the immigration courts alone. But we will continue to stand in solidarity with these children and fight to protect their rights to legal representation.' The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act requires the government to provide legal representation for minors to the 'greatest extent practicable,' the Times noted. The paper cited American Immigration Council data showing that children appear in immigration court 95% of the time when represented by an attorney, as opposed to 33% of the time without one. Funding for the legal representation for unaccompanied minors had been continuously renewed since 2005, El Pais noted. Fifty-seven percent of unaccompanied children with pending immigration cases had legal counsel in 2024, according to the Acacia Center for Justice. And representation makes a major difference: Unaccompanied children with legal representation at some point during their cases were more than seven times as likely to receive an outcome that let them stay in the United States, a 2021 Vera Institute of Justice report found. The cuts are just one of several steps the Trump administration has taken targeting undocumented youth. The administration now also allows the Office for Refugee Resettlement to share information about children's sponsors' immigration status with law enforcement, Reuters reported — raising concerns that family members could be discouraged from sponsoring relatives due to fears over deportation. The cuts to legal defense funding for immigrant children are all the more shocking in light of President Donald Trump's fixation on 325,000 migrant children that he has asserted are 'slaves, sex slaves or dead.' The false claim is apparently in reference to a 2024 report that found that 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear for immigration court hearings between fiscal years 2019 and 2023; the same report counted 291,000 children to whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not yet served notices to appear for court dates. Setting aside that the time period covered both the Trump and Biden administrations, these children were not presumed 'lost,' let alone trafficked. Rather, those figures represent more of a 'paperwork issue,' Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, now a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told the BBC in November. 'When you hear the phrase 'missing,' you think that there is a child that someone is trying to find and can't,' he said. 'That's not the case here. The government has not made any effort to find these children.' Still, migrant children are known to be vulnerable to both sexual abuse and labor exploitation. And the Trump administration's decision to strip migrant children of their legal representation makes them more susceptible to such harm, advocates say. 'I've seen how, without a legal advocate representing their interests, unaccompanied children can really get lost,' Nick Cuneo, a doctor who has worked with unaccompanied children, said on the Amica call. 'Legal representatives are often on the frontline of kids disclosing what's happening to them,' he added. 'As we know, kids without parental figures or close guardians can be subject to predation, and there have been reports of labor trafficking and so forth in the United States with this population in particular that I have seen bear out in anecdotes. Often, attorneys are the ones who are able to pick up on when a child is being mistreated or abused.' 'It's hard to rationalize any way that makes sense,' Cuneo said, referring to the administration's decision to remove an 'extra layer of protection' for unaccompanied children. Jesús Güereca, a managing attorney at Estrella del Paso in El Paso, Texas, said on the call that migrant children represented by attorneys 'have that trust in us, so they're able to tell us [about things that are happening to them], and we're able to do something about that.' 'Inside of a shelter, our primary goal is to keep the children safe,' Güereca said. 'That's what this funding does. It helps keep the children safe. We're an extra set of eyes, an extra set of ears, an extra set of adults that care about these children.' 'Without this funding, that's going away.' Columbia Student Sought By ICE Sues Trump Over Deportation Efforts Gay Venezuelan Makeup Artist Among Hundreds Deported Without Due Process U.S. Government Cannot Deport Georgetown Scholar Until Court Rules, Judge Orders A Timeline Of The Legal Wrangling And Deportation Flights After Trump Invoked The Alien Enemies Act Trump Administration Deports Hundreds Of Immigrants Even As A Judge Orders Their Removals Be Stopped

Trump administration backtracks on defunding legal help for migrant children
Trump administration backtracks on defunding legal help for migrant children

Yahoo

time22-02-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Trump administration backtracks on defunding legal help for migrant children

Migrants wait in line near El Paso, Texas to board a transport bus on May 10, 2023. Photo by Corrie Boudreaux for Source New Mexico The Trump administration's decision to rip federal funding away from organizations that provide free legal services to migrant children has been reversed, after igniting chaos among immigrant aid groups who feared tens of thousands of children would be left without attorneys. Less than a week ago, the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services issued a stop work order to dozens of legal aid groups across the country that provide pro bono representation to migrant children, cutting them off from funding provided under the Unaccompanied Children Program. On Friday, that stop work order was revoked, without explanation. Neither of the two federal agencies has commented on the reversal. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Advocates warned the result of the stop work order would be tens of thousands of children who arrive in the U.S. without their parents or legal guardians being forced to face judges alone to plead their case, without the help of an expert to refute the arguments of federal attorneys calling for their removal from the country. That would virtually guarantee deportation, as the vast majority of unaccompanied minors — some of them just two years old — don't speak English and aren't prepared to navigate the country's complex immigration court system. The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, Arizona's largest provider of legal resources for immigrants, was one of several legal aid groups that grappled with the prospect of ending services once existing funds ran out. In the past four months alone, 4,073 children have crossed the Arizona-Mexico border, many seeking asylum after fleeing violence in their home countries. Lillian Aponte, the Project's executive director, said during a Wednesday news conference that it currently has more than 800 legal cases open, and that the thousands of know your rights presentations and case consultations it conducts on an annual basis were jeopardized by the stop work order. Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, the organization's deputy director, welcomed the news of the restored funding as 'unequivocally good,' but said they are wary of future attacks on immigrant rights from the Trump administration. She added that even just a days-long funding freeze has consequences for unaccompanied children who need legal help. 'We are clear-eyed that this is not the last threat to funding for legal services for detained immigrant children, and we will remain vigilant in protecting the rights of immigrant children here in Arizona,' Avila-Cimpeanu said in a written statement. 'The uncertainty of these unanticipated stop work orders and then the subsequent rapid rescissions is quite harmful to the people who are impacted by them and the organizations who provide these services. It is critical for legal services to be available to immigrant children without interruption and for organizations to be able to rely on the funding provided by these contracts.' Before the stop work order was rescinded, immigrant legal aid groups, including the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which has advocated on behalf of immigrants for more than two decades and provides services in multiple states, had been weighing the possibility of challenging it in court. The Amica Center headed a lawsuit against a similar stop work order issued in January by the Trump administration, which halted funding for four federal programs intended to help immigrants, including the Legal Orientation Program, the Immigration Court Helpdesk, the Family Group Legal Orientation Program and the Counsel for Children Initiative. That order was also ultimately walked back less than two weeks after being issued — and just two days after the lawsuit was filed. No explanation for that reversal was given, either. Part of the Amica Center's January lawsuit argued that the Trump administration unlawfully ended funding for the four immigrant aid programs without providing a reason to do so or conducting a review — in violation of the guidelines put in place by Congress, which allocated $29 million for those programs. The Unaccompanied Children Program is funded through the Department of Health and Human Services, whose budget is likewise determined by Congress. The Trump administration's move against the four legal aid programs, however brief, had devastating consequences for immigrants trying to access legal advice at the time. Attorneys working under the programs were barred from detention centers, preventing them from providing legal counsel. And in at least two states, Illinois and Michigan, organizations operating help desks, uncertain about the future, reported shutting down, scaling back services and telling visitors they couldn't offer help. For migrants facing deportation proceedings, any roadblock can severely impact their ability to obtain asylum or delay removal. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store