The Trump administration by Friday must pay millions of dollars to Estrella del Paso and other legal aid organizations that represent unaccompanied migrant children, a federal judge ordered Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguín of Oakland, California, ordered the government to release $65 million in payments it has withheld since December by 1 p.m. MDT Friday, including about $765,000 it owes Estrella del Paso. She also ordered the government to file by 2 p.m. MDT a declaration saying it has done so.
“We are incredibly grateful for the court’s decision to order the payment of our outstanding invoices by noon PST tomorrow. The court saw clearly the government’s attempt to evade the injunction,” Melissa M. Lopez, executive director of Estrella del Paso, said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
The government had argued that the organizations weren’t properly filing invoices and providing information requested, while the legal aid organizations said the government was withholding payments in an attempt to force them to turn over confidential information about the migrant children they represent.
Estrella del Paso on Friday shut down its legal aid program for unaccompanied children, laying off 13 employees and cutting off services to any new minor clients, citing the lack of payments from the government and the expiration of its contract with the government.
It is unclear whether Estrella or the other organizations that brought the lawsuit against the government will be able to continue providing legal services to the unaccompanied minor children.
That’s because the government’s contract with Acacia Center for Justice, which subcontracts with the other providers, ended Friday.
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Acacia and the other organizations in court documents said that no bridge contract has been identified and no cases have been transferred to any other legal provider since Friday. About 24,000 cases are pending, according to court records.
“Unfortunately, today’s decision does not restore the critical legal services to children that lapsed on July 31,” Lopez said. “We await the government’s update as to the steps being taken to ensure unaccompanied children receive the services they are legally entitled to receive.
In a separate filing Thursday, the Office of Refugee Resettlement in an update to the court said it awarded a $20 million emergency contract this week to the nonprofit Committee for Refugee and Immigrants, which began providing services Wednesday. The contract includes services for representation in immigration court as well as legal orientations and legal consultations through at least December.
Attorneys are being deployed to about 20 immigration courts nationwide, the filing states.
The government said it’s also close to awarding the contracts for long-term legal representation, but says it can’t publicly disclose information because negotiations are ongoing.
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The Associated Press on Wednesday reported that the Trump administration this week awarded a $150 million contract – a “single source” agreement which didn’t require competitive bidding – to Burke Law Group, a firm headquartered in Houston with ties to the president. The ORR in its update to the court mentions the Burke firm, saying it has a “strong geographic presence in Texas.” The firm does not appear to have any offices in El Paso.
One of the law firm’s founders, Marcella Burke, is a former Trump appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. A former employee and founding partner, Jeffrey Hall, was appointed and confirmed to serve in the EPA late last year, ABC News reported this week.
The one-year contract to represent children now held in government-run shelters takes effect Aug. 15. About 1,800 children live in shelters, and about 22,000 live with family members or other sponsors.
Judge Martinez-Olguín’s order comes after a hearing earlier Thursday on a motion by the Acacia Center and other organizations asking the judge to enforce a preliminary injunction she issued in April requiring the government to continue funding legal representation of unaccompanied migrant children.
The government in court documents cited an audit that allegedly found inconsistencies in invoices by the groups, including duplicate documents, missing receipts, charges to the incorrect line items, and the inability to determine whether billed work related to eligible children. It also argues that some of the billing was for children who had already been deported.
The organizations in turn argued that the government is producing misleading discrepancies, stating in court documents that many children receive services before a notice of appearance is filed and that some children receive legal representation after they leave the United States, court documents show. That work includes legal assistance in processing U visas for victims of crimes or abuse who help government officials investigate or prosecute crimes, according to court records.
For nearly two decades under different administrations, Congress has appropriated funds for the migrant children under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act that provides them physical and legal protections.
In her order, the judge states that the government’s argument on the contract for services with Acacia “reflects yet another attempt to transform this Administrative Procedures Act case into a contract case. The Court has rejected that attempt multiple times.”
She also admonished the government, saying it was attempting to use “a contractual dispute as a shield for their failure to abide by the terms of the preliminary injunction” and that “imposing additional conditions for issuance of payment at this stage would be an end run around the injunction that the Court must reject.”
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