Once a powerful symbol of severe government overreach, the immigrant families forcibly separated during President Trump’s first term are now encountering fresh legal hurdles pushed by an empowered Trump administration.
It’s a peculiar situation: the government that has been attempting to deport them is now attempting to assume control of the task of assisting them through the tedious immigration court processes.
So long as it’s efficient, the Justice Department claims. There is a clear conflict of interest, according to advocates and private attorneys who have represented the families. A hearing is set for Friday, when the matter will be heard in its entirety.
The most recent disagreement arises from a settlement that was allowed by the court in 2023 and is intended to help the families that were separated due to Trump’s immigration policy in 2017 and 2018. A variety of benefits, including publicly financed legal services, were mandated by the settlement for the administration to offer.
Outside organizations, spearheaded by the nonprofit immigrant legal defense group Acacia Center for Justice, had been providing the families with legal assistance up until May 1. They had been using these private attorneys to guide them through the maze of family reunification, temporary legal status applications, and immigration court until the Justice Department suddenly refused to extend its contract with Acacia.
Advocates for these divided families are worried, confused, and wary of an inherent conflict due to the decision to bring the legal services in-house. They claim that the administration has not only abruptly cut off Acacia’s services, but has also failed to outline how it would handle the legal matters of up to 8,000 individuals, some of whom are confronted with pressing court deadlines and the looming threat of deportation or separation.
Nobody is paying attention this time.
There was a time when their situations received a lot of media attention and even visited by potential Democratic presidential candidates. Interest in their situation has diminished, however, due to Trump’s second-term immigration strategy, which involves deportations to El Salvador’s giant jail and several other court challenges. In their fight against fresh deportation attempts, advocates are concerned that families may face practical repercussions as a result of the attention-wanting.
“Haven’t we done enough to these families?” The nonprofit Together & Free, which has assisted divided families, has a pro bono director named Anilú Chadwick who made the statement. It’s like going back in time seven years when I was attempting to locate the parents of infants while carrying them in my arms. It’s really mind-blowing.
An official from the Department of Justice told AWN that it’s “insulting to suggest” that the team working on immigration cases at the DOJ “cannot provide services more effectively and efficiently than a self-interested, third-party outside contractor.”
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw presided over a settlement in 2023 that granted the separated families access to legal representation. An agreement mandating the provision of medical care, housing assistance, and other services to children and parents forcibly separated by the Trump administration in 2017 and 2018 was granted by the Bush appointee located in Southern California. In addition to providing legal assistance to assist families in navigating the complex paperwork necessary to get temporary legal status and access benefit programs, the government also had to assist families in working toward reunification and temporary legal status in the United States.
Those programs have to be “adequately resourced and funded” according to the settlement.
The Trump administration maintains that the contractors’ outside attorneys were replaced with its own in-house attorneys, thereby satisfying the settlement’s provision for continuous legal assistance. “Defendants must offer legal services in the same means for the period of the agreement” is not something the settlement mandates, according to Justice Department attorneys.
Legal representatives from the Department of Justice stated in court documents that the Executive Office for Immigration Review would offer legal services in order to “maximize efficiency.” By May 15, the office will “begin providing regularly scheduled group sessions and self-help workshops” to “equip them with the knowledge and information to successfully navigate their immigration proceedings.” Further details were not provided. To address these service shortages, the agency plans to rely on contractors hired by the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
Furthermore, the attorneys stated that the immigration office of the DOJ “will leverage its existing pro bono network” to link “interested class members with pro bono representatives to provide representation.”
Those in favor of the policy argue that this forces separated and reunited families to make an untenable choice: to seek legal counsel from the exact government that they are suing for benefits.
A total of 187 class members may have their humanitarian parole status and work permits revoked in May, 113 in June, and 142 in July, according to a court petition made by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday. Also being monitored by advocates are 114 members of the class who are now subject to removal orders and who “urgently need access to legal services to file motions to reopen and dismiss their proceedings.”