A file image of a judge's gavel in a courtroom at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
The Trump administration Wednesday ended the Legal Orientation Program, designed to provide people with basic information necessary to understand their rights in immigration court.
Laura St. John, with the legal aid nonprofit the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, said the program has had bipartisan support since it was created in 2003. And the funding for the programs has already been appropriated by Congress.
“And it has repeatedly had reviews by independent organizations at the government's behest, and has repeatedly been found to be effective, efficient, and a good use of government money,” she said.
Advocates say terminating these national legal access programs poses a significant threat to the rights of immigrant children, adults, and families.
“One of the big things that we are most concerned about at the Florence project is … how this will impact our ability to access people," St. John said. "We've been providing these types of education services in the Florence facilities since 1989, and last January, during the stop work order, was the first time ever that we have been told that we could not come in and try to provide these basic education services for people.”
In January, the Trump administration issued a stop work order for legal access programs. The Florence Project and eight other immigrants’ rights organizations sued to challenge it. The stop work order was later rescinded, with litigation pending.
On April 11 the Department of Justice announced that it had terminated these programs nationwide, effective April 16.
Without the program, thousands of people detained in Arizona will be forced to represent themselves in immigration court with little to no information about their options, advocates say.
The immigrant rights groups filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order to continue the programs while litigation is pending, which a judge denied yesterday, saying the plaintiffs had not yet shown irreparable harm.
St. John says during the stop work order in January, organizations including the Florence Project were only allowed limited access to their clients in immigration proceedings.
Through the program, legal advocates provide Know Your Rights presentations, individual legal intakes, and support for people representing themselves in immigration proceedings. There will likely be another hearing in the case in May.
“Nobody will be getting paid to conduct these services, and to the extent that the Florence Project is seeking to continue providing these services, we're having to do it without any support or funding, and we're going to have to be trying to figure out how to fill that gap,” St. John said.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.