Washington, D.C. – Nine immigrants’ rights organizations filed a renewed Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to block the Trump administration’s termination of critical legal orientation programs for immigrants, including the Family Group Legal Orientation Program, Counsel for Children Initiative, Immigration Court Helpdesk, Legal Orientation Program, and Legal Orientation Program for Custodians.
A hearing for the renewed TRO will take place Tuesday, April 15th, at 2:30 PM ET at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The renewed TRO is part of the lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and other defendants filed by the same organizations in January 2025, challenging a stop work order impacting the same legal access programs. These programs are the minimum safeguard of due process for immigrants facing removal from the United States, and the stop work order and subsequent termination of these programs obliterate even the semblance of fundamental fairness in our immigration system.
Organizational plaintiffs in the suit include American Gateways, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Estrella del Paso, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, National Immigrant Justice Center, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
The DOJ’s decision to terminate these national legal access programs poses a significant threat to the rights of immigrant children, adults, and families, especially those detained by the government. These legal orientation programs are crucial, as they provide immigrants—the vast majority of whom are unrepresented, and many of whom are confused and traumatized, do not speak English, and lack any legal education—with essential information about their rights throughout the immigration process and deportation proceedings. Such programs have bipartisan support, and the oldest has been in place for over two decades.
The TRO aims to keep these essential programs in place as the litigation challenging the legality of their termination progresses through the courts, which is the bare minimum needed to ensure that people facing immigration proceedings have the basic information necessary to understand and exercise their legal rights.
Edna Yang, Co-Executive Director at American Gateways, said:
“American Gateways proudly stands with our partners in seeking an immediate halt to the proposed reckless cuts to the Legal Orientation Program and the Immigration Court Helpdesk. These cuts would strip thousands of vulnerable immigrants from understanding and accessing their basic rights. These programs are often the only lifeline for people navigating an incredibly complex legal process without representation. We need to protect the integrity of our courts and ensure that everyone, regardless of status, has a fair chance to be heard.”
Sam Hsieh, Deputy Program Director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said:
“The government has yet to offer any legitimate reason for terminating these programs that safeguard the most basic due process rights for noncitizens on top of promoting efficiency. These legal orientation programs are as important as ever, given the Administration’s indiscriminate subjection of so many noncitizens to detention and removal. We look forward to the Court hearing our claims for the immediate reinstatement of the programs.”
Laura St. John, Legal Director at Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, said:
“Without the LOP, hundreds of thousands of migrants will face the full force of the U.S. legal system without any sort of legal education or support, leading to disastrous and potentially deadly outcomes. The LOP is the bare minimum necessary to protect due process rights, and now the administration is slashing it at the same time it is massively expanding detention and deportation operations. To do both is cruel and a blatant violation of people’s due process rights, which is the bedrock of a just legal system and central to our core values. We joined our partners in filing for this Temporary Restraining Order to ensure that people in immigration detention in Arizona receive the legal education and support that is their right under the law.”
Lisa Koop, National Director of Legal Services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said:
“This administration’s renewed efforts to shut down the Immigration Court Helpdesk — after the previous attempt was stopped by a federal court just months ago — is one of the many ways this increasingly authoritarian administration is ignoring the courts and flouting the rule of law. It is no coincidence that this second attempt to shut down access to basic legal services for unrepresented individuals inside immigration courts happened just as local immigration courts have posted signs in their waiting rooms pressuring people to ‘self-deport.’ We will not stand by as this administration eviscerates due process and tramples on people’s access to their fair day in court.”
Mekela Goehring, Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), said:
“Terminating these programs is devastating for individuals in immigration court proceedings in Colorado and beyond. For the last 22 years, RMIAN has been providing legal orientation services to individuals at the immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado. Through this work, as well as orientation programs at the Denver Immigration court, RMIAN has helped tens of thousands of community members understand their rights under U.S. immigration law. These programs are a cornerstone in ensuring basic protection for individuals in removal proceedings, where there is no right to court-appointed counsel, even for children, or for those in civil immigration detention. Eliminating these essential and life-saving immigration legal service programs is unconscionable.”
Press Contacts:
Erin Barnaby, Amica Center
media@amicacenter.org
Greer Millard, Florence Project
gmillard@firrp.org, (602) 795-7407
Tara Tidwell Cullen, National Immigrant Justice Center
ttidwellcullen@immigrantjustice.org, (312) 833-2967