Trump's DOJ Sends Haunting Message to Illegals with New Ruling on Detainment
A government-sponsored program which offered free legal advice to illegal immigrants who were detained has been temporarily discontinued by the Trump administration, NPR reported this week.
The Vera Institute of Justice, an immigrant activist organization which runs the Legal Orientation Program and the Immigration Court Helpdesk, was informed by the Department of Justice this Tuesday that when the contract for the program expires on April 30, it will be discontinued.
The Legal Orientation Program, which was first started under the George W. Bush administration, has an annual budget of about $6 million a year. Periodic reviews have been conducted on its efficacy, the last being in 2012.
A statement from the Vera Institute of Justice decried the DOJ’s decision.
“LOP serves more than 50,000 people per year in 38 large detention centers and ensures that all immigrants in detention are provided with the essential information they need to navigate our complex legal system,” the statement, released Wednesday, read.
“LOP empowers program participants to represent themselves if they have a valid claim under existing law or to determine that their best course is to accept deportation.”
The statement said that the LOP “is a lifeline for many immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and green-card holders — some who are fighting for their lives — who would otherwise not know the rights they have or the odds they face. LOP saves lives. Every day this program is not in operation puts family unity at risk, harms our communities, and infringes on the right of all people to make informed decisions about their legal claims.”
The Vera Institute of Justice also said that the LOP “has had unquestionably positive effects on the immigration court process and terminating it would be fiscally irresponsible. The Department of Justice concluded in a 2012 study that this essential work is a cost-effective and efficient way to promote due process and cut through the large backlog of cases, the most significant issue facing the immigration courts today.”
Of course, this review took place under the Obama administration, which likely had different objectives and different ways of measuring the costs of illegal immigration than the Trump administration does.
The move also came a day after a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration was setting quotas for immigration judges, requiring them to clear a certain number of cases per year.
Immigration judges will now be required to clear 700 cases off their docket per year with less than 15 percent of those decisions returned to them by a higher court.
The judges would also face new requirements that would force them to complete cases shortly after a hearing was held.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that the courts have represented a bottleneck in processing illegal immigrants detained and slated for deportation.
The message here is pretty obvious — the Trump administration is making a major change in how deportation cases are handled by the government.
Immigration courts have long been a significant problem which has cost the American taxpayer greatly. Dealing with immigration judges and ensuring that the system is both speedy and fair is one way to do it. A review of the LOP, which saw its last major review during the Obama years, during which deportation wasn’t exactly a top priority, is another way.
It’s a serious message from the new DOJ — they’re not doing business in the same way that Barack Obama did it, particularly when it comes to illegal immigrants.
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