Following a flurry of anti-immigrant executive orders by Donald Trump on his first day in office, the Department of Justice sent emails last Wednesday ordering legal service providers in immigration courts to “stop work immediately.” The order was sent to organizations working within four federally funded programs designed to help people navigate the complex immigration court system, through assistance outside the courtroom—like going over legal paperwork and court date requirements—and inside the courtroom, through direct legal representation.
The day after the stop-work order was issued, members of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights showed up at a detention facility in Virginia, hoping to provide services at their own expense despite the funding pause. “Our team went to the facility in Virginia and then was escorted out about an hour into their work,” says the organization’s executive director, Michael Lukens, calling it “a real blow, because our mission is to help people and we were being told that the government would not allow us to do that.”
On Sunday, 11 days after the stop-work email went out, the DOJ restored funding for the programs after the Amica Center and eight other immigration rights organizations filed a lawsuit. But even though the programs are back, chaos and confusion spread—like with many of the administration’s recent actions that courts have stepped in to temporarily halt—and there’s no reason to believe Trump won’t attempt something similar in the future.
Lukens says being shut out of the facilities made the detention centers “de facto black sites” with no transparency or accountability. I heard similar stories of disruption from another advocate speaking on condition of anonymity, who told me about one lawyer who was panicking about the fact that his client would age out of being able to apply for special immigrant juvenile status—which provides an opportunity for permanent residency to young people who suffer abuse or neglect by guardians—if he was unable to help him file his paperwork within a week.
People facing deportation have no right to a public defender—immigration proceedings are considered a civil, rather than a criminal matter—which makes these legal support programs indispensable. It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of people facing deportation lack legal counsel, and as of the end of fiscal year 2024, there was a backlog of 3.6 million immigration cases in the United States.
Congress has repeatedly increased funding for two programs affected by the “stop-work” order—a Legal Orientation Program and Immigration Court Helpdesk—with congressional appropriations committees arguing that the programs benefit taxpayers by making immigration proceedings more efficient. The Legal Orientation Program, which offers legal education and refers people to free or affordable counsel, has assisted hundreds of thousands since it was founded in 2003.
In 2018, during Trump’s first term, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions froze funding for both programs, leading to public objections from Democratic members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which not only emphasized how the programs saved the government millions but also how Sessions’ actions defied “clear and unambiguous Congressional intent” and ignored “the will of Congress.” Sessions eventually backtracked and restored funding after the congressional pushback.
When Richard Nixon’s administration attempted to withhold funds appropriated by Congress, as both Trump administrations now have, lower courts repeatedly struck down the attempts, and the Supreme Court eventually ruled 9-0 against him in a case, decided in 1975, involving the Nixon White House’s effort to defund a program for mitigating water pollution.
Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel, chief of staff at immigrant rights organization Acacia Center for Justice, said via email that “members of Congress from both sides of the aisle” in both Republican and Democratic administrations “have agreed that these vital programs help individuals better understand their rights and obligations while they are in immigration proceedings.” She adds, “Particularly as the administration announces plans to ramp up detention and enforcement operations around the country, it is more vital than ever that people have access to due process protections, afforded to everyone in the U.S – regardless of immigration status – under the Constitution.”
Lukens sees the recent executive action to defund and ban immigration support as another clear violation of the constitutional “power of the purse,” a key plank of the Constitution which gives Congress power over how federal funds are spent. “The executive branch is obligated to spend funds that have been appropriated,” Lukens says. “That’s just basic constitutional law.” His organization is moving forward with the lawsuit; he hopes for a verdict that will make those obligations even clearer, and prevent future attempts to bar immigrants from receiving legal services.
The White House and Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.
