March 27 (UPI) — Advocates for migrant children filed suit Thursday against the Department of Health and Human Services for cutting funding to programs that support unaccompanied minors.
The suit alleges that groups that provide services may no longer be able to operate as a result of the funding cuts. It said they may have to stop taking on new clients and “face the real threat of not being able to continue their ongoing representations,” ABC News reported.
“The Trump Administration’s decision to terminate these national legal service programs poses a significant threat to the rights of already vulnerable unaccompanied immigrant children. Many of these children are eligible for immigration relief but are unable to meaningfully seek it without an attorney. This is the most brazen attack on immigrant children since family separation,” the migrant rights group Amica said in a statement.
Groups that support migrant children have received more than $200 million to provide services and were told that the programs would be partially terminated as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending.
More than 26,000 children currently receive services through the grant-funded programs, many of which have been at least partially terminated.
The groups that filed the suit asked a federal judge to issue an injunction against the HHS directive, which would block the cuts in legal aid funding.
