Posted on 02/19/2025 6:52:30 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Legal services groups that offer representation and guidance to thousands of migrant children facing deportation said on Tuesday that they were abruptly directed by the Trump administration to halt their government-funded work.
Affected organizations across the U.S. said the move would prevent them from offering critical legal services, including "know your rights" sessions, to migrant children who crossed the U.S. southern border without their parents or legal guardians.
Under U.S. law, the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for housing unaccompanied migrant minors who enter the U.S. without legal authorization, until they turn 18 or can be placed with a sponsor, who is typically a relative in the U.S. The government has long funded efforts by nonprofits to provide these children legal counsel — both in custody and after they are released from government care — while immigration judges decide whether they can remain in the U.S.
Shaina Aber, the executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said her organization has nearly 100 subcontractors providing legal services to roughly 26,000 migrant children across the country who are or were at some point in the custody of HHS, which oversees a network of child shelters.
Aber said the stop work order would immediately halt funding for know your rights presentations and legal screenings that lawyers conduct soon after migrant children arrive in the U.S. to determine whether they qualify for a benefit that would allow them to stay in the country legally.
But Aber said the contract pause would also force non-profits to use their own funds to continue representing migrant children in immigration court, noting that attorneys have ethical obligations to their clients and can't simply abandon their cases.
"I think the due process rights of children will reach a new low," Aber said in an interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The thought of thousands of leftist lawyers in prisons....if that happens it means I died and went to heaven.
:-)
Good for Trump.
This has been a center for unconstitutional Leftist power for decades.
Nothing ethical about helping illegals stay here regardless of their age.
And I hear the U.S.S.R will be open soon
As Vacation Land for lawyers in love
US taxpayers are paying for illegals to evade the law. Great.
“who is typically a relative in the U.S.“
How many stories have there been about kids being placed with people they never knew?
Then just so happen to get “lost” by the government?
How about putting them back where they belong?
America Winning!
In fact it is immoral.
Hmmm. Seems to me that if the lawyers really cared they would donate their time to help the poor, little children.
Less tax dollars wasted good deal.
Return these runaway ‘children’ to their parents.
Our government should not be aiding in this child sex trafficking business.
WHAT “RIGHTS”??????
THEY ARE IN THIS COUNTRY ILLEGALLY. PERIOD — NO EXCEPTIONS
IN THE PRIOR YEARS-—IT WAS CALLED “WITHOUT PAPERS” AKA “WOPS”.
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE WORKERS FOR THESE NGO’S IS BREAKING THE LAW:
AIDING / ABETTING / HARBORING === FEDERAL FELONIES
It seems to me a lawyer can advise and represent anyone he or she chooses to take as a client. What is happening is that they won’t get paid by the taxpayer for it.
IMO-—AMERICAN TAXPAYERS NEVER REALIZED HOW MUCH OF THEIR MONEY WAS BEING PAID TO UNDERMINE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.
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