The Trump administration has rescinded its decision to cut off legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children, just three days after it ordered government-funded attorneys across the country to immediately stop their work.
The Acacia Center for Justice and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) confirmed that the stop-work order affecting non-profits that provide legal counsel for about 26,000 unaccompanied minors had been lifted.
“We welcome the news that the stop-work order on Acacia’s Unaccompanied Children Program has been lifted,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in the statement. “We will continue working alongside the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that these critical services upholding the basic due process rights of vulnerable children are fully restored and our partners in the legal field – legal lifelines safeguarding the rights and well-being of children seeking safety – can resume their work without future disruption or delay.”
Acacia and its subcontractors, which include legal service non-profits across the US, have been providing legal services to minors to see if they can qualify for reprieve from deportations while the office of refugee resettlement (ORR) searches for family members who can take custody of them.
The administration’s stop-work order on Tuesday shocked non-profits who work with unaccompanied children, some of whom are less than a year old. Many lawyers, including at Acacia and ImmDef, had continued to represent and work with clients despite the order, saying that absurdly leaving children without legal representation could have dire consequences and would violate the ethical codes stipulated in their legal licenses.
“In the past 48 hours, people appalled by the cruelty shown to migrant children sent over 15,000 letters to Congress,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, ImmDef’s president and CEO. “They demanded that legal access for unaccompanied children be restored, and that this administration protect children in their care. We are deeply grateful for their support. Now, children across the nation won’t have to face the immediate threat.”
Among the children affected by this stop-work order are those who presented themselves to officials at the border without their parents and were put under the custody of ORR. Some are in foster care or in group homes.
About 50% of children have legal representation in immigration court.
Article by:Source: Maanvi Singh
