California U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguín ordered the Trump administration to pay $65 million to nonprofit providers for immigration law work representing unaccompanied migrant children. The ruling came on Thursday after the organizations said they had gone unpaid for work already done, and court records showed the money was being processed by 4 p.m. local time.
Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said the center is owed over $2.5 million. He said, “The government owes us over $2.5 million for work already done, a lot of that for kids in Maryland.”
Amica Center and other nonprofits
The Amica Center is one of nearly 100 nonprofits owed over $65 million in unpaid fees for representing unaccompanied migrant children in deportation cases. Lukens said, “We are able to now replenish those funds that we have been pulling down from our reserves.”
He said the center handles hundreds of cases in Maryland and also works on cases in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. Lukens said, “We did not go to our child clients and say there's a contract issue, you may lose your attorney,” and added, “Our mandate is to help the children, and we did that every day this week.”
HHS contract expired
The organizations are part of a network under the Acacia Center for Justice, which had a contract with HHS for years to provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children. The contract was not renewed last year and expired on July 31, and some children went without lawyers at their court hearings this week after it ended.
The judge ordered payment for past work, but the federal contract for these legal services had still not been renewed when the ruling was reported. Court records showed the payments were expected to reach organizations on Monday.
Burke Law Group contract
The Trump administration also awarded a separate $150 million contract to the Burke Law Group, a small Texas-based law firm, to provide legal services to these children. Lukens said, “The administration is trying to deport as many kids as possible, so we are seeing a decrease in the number of children locally. It has not been significant yet, but they really are ramping up deportations of children right now,” tying the payment fight to the services children are still trying to access.
Whether the federal contract for these legal services will be renewed after July 31 remains unanswered, leaving the nonprofit network to wait on the money ordered Thursday while the processing moves ahead.
