LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Attorney General Dana Nessel filed an amicus brief in support of a group that is challenging the Trump administration’s termination of funding for legal services for unaccompanied migrant children.
ABC News reported that organizations that collectively received more than $200 million in federal grants were told in March that the contract funding legal representation was “partially terminated.”
The coalition.
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Nessel joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing the brief, according to a press release. The coalition argued that the termination of federal funding will undermine their states’ efforts in “ensuring the safety of unaccompanied children.”
“Unaccompanied children arriving in this country are some of the most vulnerable people in our legal system,” Nessel said. “Without legal representation, many may be forced to appear alone in court, unable to defend their rights. Denying them that support shouldn’t be a policy choice. Ensuring these children have access to legal counsel is a matter of fairness, safety, and basic human decency enshrined into our laws by Congress. I stand with my colleagues in urging the Court to protect this critical funding.”
The coalition of attorneys general said it has a “strong interest” in this matter because many unaccompanied migrant children will be released to sponsors in states, such as Michigan. Last year, around 750 of these children were released to sponsors in Michigan.
White House response.
In a White House memo to the Justice Department in March, it noted there is “rampant fraud” in the immigration system.
“The immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief,” the White House said.
According to Gonzalez Olivieri LLC., an immigration attorneys group, the White House has “criticized the immigration system, alleging that some lawyers and law firms coach clients to hide information and deceive authorities in an effort to bypass immigration policies.”
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Nessel joined attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington in filing the brief.