By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A federal judge ordered U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily restore funding for programs that provide legal services for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in San Francisco late on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from cutting off funding that advocates said was crucial to ensure 26,000 children could keep their attorneys.
“The maintenance of funding for direct legal representation services furthers the critical public interests of ensuring children have access to legal representation and protection from human trafficking,” Martinez-Olguin wrote.
The administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cancellation of the funding occurred amid the Republican president’s broader campaign to crack down on immigration and humanitarian programs he says go beyond the intent of U.S. law.
Nonprofit legal service providers who had previously received funding for their work from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement sued last week after the administration moved to stop the funding.
That funding was disbursed through Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit that had been contracted to manage a network of 89 legal services organizations nationally that provide representation to unaccompanied children.
The contract was issued on behalf of HHS by the U.S. Department of Interior, which in a March 21 letter ordered Acacia to stop all work.
Martinez-Olguin, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, in her decision noted that Congress has consistently appropriated funds to represent children in immigration proceedings, providing more than $5 billion for that purpose in fiscal year 2024.
She said the nonprofits “raise serious questions” as to whether the administration’s actions violated its obligations under the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
That law requires the government to ensure all unaccompanied children receive legal counsel to represent them in legal proceedings and to protect them from mistreatment, exploitation and trafficking.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in BostonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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