Legal aid groups — including Arizona’s Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project — are asking a federal court to reconsider its ruling in favor of a Trump administration policy that defunds legal orientations for immigration detainees.
A dozen rights groups filed suit after the Trump administration stripped funding from several legal aid initiatives in April — including a legal orientation program held inside several immigration detention centers around the country.
This week, the groups filed an appeal with the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which recently upheld the funding cancellation.
Adina Appelbaum is the program director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights — one of the groups behind the suit. She says the legal orientations were already only available in some detention centers.
“This was the bare minimum for a limited number that had a way to have someone who is not from the same institution deporting them, or ordering them deported, to come give them neutral, legal information,” she said.
The program was the only avenue for detainees without a lawyer to get information on asylum and other basic immigration functions.
“It’s virtually a one-way train to deportation that the government has created intentionally for immigrants, especially those who are detained,” she said.
The appeal comes as a new Trump administration directive bars bond hearings for immigrants who entered the U.S. unlawfully, allowing millions to be detained for months or even years as their removal proceedings play out in court.
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Leadership clarified that non-members — including employees or residents, guests of tribal members, travelers on public roadways and vendors tied to the Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise — may still travel freely “without any restrictions.”
