DE nonprofits lose money for immigration legal aid

Children who arrived in Delaware from outside the United States in recent years may have to represent themselves in immigration court after the Trump administration slashed hundreds of thousands of dollars last month that had been allocated to pay for lawyers for kids who had entered the country without a parent.

The decision has left Delaware nonprofits who provide immigration services reeling, and prompted some immediate layoffs at one local organization.

Among those who have lost their jobs is Joanne McAfee-Maldonado, who had served as a paralegal for the immigration childrens program at Church World Service in Georgetown since January.

She was laid off on a Monday. She had until Friday to clear her caseload.

In those five days, she told two children, ages 7 and 17, that she could no longer help them with their immigration cases. Instead, she referred them to other legal aid services in Delaware.

She cried after they left her office, she said.

McAfee-Maldonado’s clients were among the more than 26,000 children who had been receiving representation through the Acacia Center for Justice and its legal service providers across the country. Those include Church World Service and La Esperanza Community Center in Delaware.

The Trump administration’s March 21 order cancelled part of a $200-million contract with Acacia that funds lawyers for unaccompanied children.

In a letter to Acacia announcing the decision, Trump administration officials said the contract was terminated “for the Government’s convenience,” according to reporting from the Associated Press.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official said that the department continues to meet legal requirements established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which carves out legal protections for children who come into the country without a parent, in an email to Spotlight Delaware.

The White House did not respond to request for comment sent by Spotlight Delaware.

A shrinking legal industry

The funding cuts could force thousands of children to face the increasingly complex immigration system without a lawyer, increasing their chances of being deported, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service published last year.

One striking example occurred in New York City earlier this month when a 4-year-old dressed in a tie-dye shirt sat for a virtual hearing with an immigration judge, holding a pink plushy toy, according to a report from Gothamist.  

“Not having legal representation to help (unaccompanied children) navigate this piece of their life makes them even more vulnerable,” McAfee-Maldonado said.

Unaccompanied children are minors who enter the United States without authorization and without an accompanying parent or legal guardian. Last fiscal year, the Office of Refugee Resettlement received 98,356 referrals for unaccompanied children from the Department of Homeland Security.

In Delaware, 3,606 unaccompanied children were released to sponsors from 2014 to 2024.

A total of 456 were settled just last year in the state.

La Esperanza — one of the state’s largest organizations serving immigrants — oversees legal aid to 60 cases of unaccompanied children. Prior to the federal cuts, Church World Service was managing two. It has scrapped plans to take on three more cases.

La Esperanza is continuing to manage its current unaccompanied minor caseload with its own funding, despite the federal dollar drought, according to Bryant Garcia, La Esperanza’s acting executive director.

Prior to the funding cuts, La Esperanza had been eligible to receive up to $260,000 in reimbursements from the federal government to fund its unaccompanied minors legal program, according to Garcia. Now, they must find money elsewhere.

“We’re still providing the service, but it’s just a matter of making up whatever funding we’ve lost,” Garcia said. “If all that funding dries up in the next coming years, then we can’t continue that work.”

The loss of money means that La Esperanza most likely won’t take on new unaccompanied minor cases, and instead will scrap expansion plans for new staff and offices. 

A Georgetown office shuttered

The Trump administration’s decision to cut money for legal aid to minors adds to other federal austerity actions that, in sum, have caused Church World Service to permanently shutter its Georgetown office — the only location in Delaware — after over a year of operations.

Church World Service was receiving about $335,000 for its unaccompanied minor work prior to the cut, according to Donna Polk, the organization’s office director in Georgetown. The office will close May 9.

The organization is also reducing staff capacity across the U.S. by nearly two thirds because of the federal actions, which include funding cuts to its refugee resettlement programs, according to the group.

In February, the Trump administration first abruptly cut funding for lawyers working with unaccompanied children, but reversed the decision a few days later. A month later, the administration reissued the cuts.

Following the order in March, a handful of nonprofits sued the Trump administration over the funding cut. A federal judge in California held a hearing on Wednesday on the question of whether to issue a full injunction to stop the cuts.

She has not yet ruled on the question, and so it remains unclear if federal dollars will be reinstated amid the ongoing litigation.