Federal District Court Orders Trump Administration to Continue to Fund Legal Services
SAN FRANCISCO – A federal district court issued a Temporary Restraining Order shortly after oral argument in CLSEPA v. HHS, temporarily restoring critical legal services for unaccompanied children. Legal service providers sued the Trump administration last week after the administration announced it would no longer fund these services for unaccompanied kids, in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and despite the funds Congress appropriated for this purpose.
Read the Temporary Restraining Order here.
Below is a statement from co-counsel in the case, which includes Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and Justice Action Center:
“No child should be left to face a broken immigration system alone. Our clients work tirelessly to ensure that these children – some as young as babies – are treated with the fairness and dignity that they deserve. When the Trump administration cruelly cut the funding for the congressionally mandated legal services for these children, these organizations lost their ability to take care of their youngest and most vulnerable clients. We are grateful that the court sought to restore the status quo while we fight for longer term relief.”
Organizational plaintiffs in the suit include Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Estrella del Paso, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA), Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Social Justice Collaborative, and Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.