Plaintiffs are eleven legal service providers from all over the country that, until March 21, 2025, provided representation and related services to unaccompanied children with funding from the federal government. They filed this lawsuit to challenge a “stop work” order sent by the Trump administration on March 21 that terminated the contracts that provided funding for counsel for unaccompanied children and ordered plaintiffs to “immediately stop work” on their ongoing funded representations. As a result of this stop work order, many of the approximately 26,000 unaccompanied children around the country - including many facing imminent removal from the U.S. - were placed at immediate risk of being cut off from their lawyers.
Plaintiffs moved for a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) the day after they filed the complaint. The court held a hearing on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 and granted a TRO the same day, blocking Defendants from withdrawing the funds for legal representation of unaccompanied children for fourteen days (until the morning of April 16); on April 10, the court subsequently extended the TRO until April 30, 2025. The federal government appealed the TRO (even though TROs aren’t appealable) on April 11. During the pendency of the TRO, the Plaintiffs filed two separate motions to enforce the TRO because the federal government was not complying with the court’s order and there continued to be no funding made available for the legal representation of unaccompanied children.
On April 29, 2025, the court issued an order converting the TRO into a preliminary injunction and further ordered the federal government to provide period status reports on its compliance with the court’s order. The federal government filed a notice of appeal on April 30, 2025.
On June 6, the government filed a motion to dismiss the case. On July 17, the Court denied the motion to dismiss.
Technical Summary
Plaintiffs allege APA claims based on: (1) violations of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (“TVPRA”), which requires, among other things, that the government “shall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable,” that all unaccompanied children receive legal counsel; (2) violation of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”)’s own policies and regulations that require that the government fund legal representation for unaccompanied children, per the Accardi doctrine; and (3) action that is arbitrary and capricious, as the government as provided no reasoning for their abrupt cancellation of funding.
Plaintiffs seek declaratory judgment and injunctive relief that will require Defendants to resume funding legal representation to unaccompanied minors, consistent with the law.
The motion to dismiss was focused on challenges to subject matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1).
Latest Updates
- 07/17/2025
- 04/29/2025
- 04/17/2025
Full Timeline and Documents
- 04/10/2025
- 04/10/2025
- 04/10/2025
- 04/01/2025
- 03/26/2025
