Trump administration cuts legal help for migrant children travelling alone
Washington, Mar 22 (AP): The Trump administration has ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.
The Acacia Center for Justice contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied migrant children under 18, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters.
Acacia said they were informed that the US Department of Health and Human Services was terminating nearly all the legal work that the centre does, including paying for lawyers for roughly 26,000 children when they go to immigration court. They're still contracted to hold the legal orientation clinics.
“It's extremely concerning because it's leaving these kids without really important support,” said Ailin Buigues, who heads Acacia's unaccompanied children programme. "They're often in a very vulnerable position.”
People fighting deportation do not have the same right to representation as people going through criminal courts, although they can hire private attorneys.
But there has been some recognition that children navigating the immigration court system without a parent or guardian are especially vulnerable.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the US without a parent or a legal guardian.
Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement that the department “continues to meet the legal requirements established” by the Act as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated.
The termination comes days before the contract was to come up for renewal on March 29. Roughly a month ago the government temporarily halted all the legal work Acacia and its subcontractors do for immigrant children, but then days later Health and Human Services reversed that decision.
The programme is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not.
A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated “for the Government's convenience.”
Michael Lukens is the executive director of Amica, which is one of the providers contracting with Acacia in the Washington, DC area. He said with the renewal date swiftly approaching, they had been worried something like this would happen.
He said they will continue to help as many kids as they can "for as long as possible” and will try to fight the termination.
“We're trying to pull every lever but we have to be prepared for the worst, which is children going to court without attorneys all over the country. This is a complete collapse of the system,” he said.
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Trump says Islamic State group leader was killed in joint US-Nigerian mission
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said US and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday.
Trump announced the joint operation in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second in command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
The US viewed Al-Mainuki as the key figure in IS organising and finance, and believed he was plotting attacks against the United States and its interests, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share sensitive information.
Born in Nigeria's Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS branch in West Africa after the group's previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks militant groups.
Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it is believed that he fought in Libya when IS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the US in 2023.
Trump in December directed US forces to launch strikes against the Islamic State group in Nigeria, though he released little detail then about the impact.
Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS.
The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela's then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the US, followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.
