A federal judge has ordered the government to restart funding for a program that provides legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín enacted a preliminary injunction this week, siding with legal service providers who are suing Health and Human Services for cutting off most of their funding.
The agency slashed the majority of a $200 million contact allowing legal groups to provide direct counsel to unaccompanied migrant children in March.
Ester Sung is the legal director of the Justice Action Center, which represents the legal groups.
“As far as we know, today, being April 30, the contract is in effect, and there should be money flowing from the federal government,” she said.
But, Sung says, that remains uncertain, since the government did not restart funding earlier in April, when the judge instated a temporary restraining order. Their suit argues Congress has provided funding for direct legal aid for migrant children since 2012, and slashing it goes against stipulations outlined in the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act.
“Even though the judge said that there must be legal funding for the representation of unaccompanied children, there was no such legal representation of unaccompanied kids, for the entire time that the judge’s temporary restraining order was in effect,” she said.
U.S. Health and Human Services did not respond to questions about the ruling. Sung says this week’s preliminary injunction is a more permanent ruling to restart the funds, but the government is expected to appeal the order.
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