Senseless decision

Legal aid helps immigration courts work, so Trump cut it on a whim — a big mistake.

A man detained in Port Isabel while awaiting deportation was one of the lucky few to get an attorney when Ruby Powers of Houston agreed to help him without charge.

“I said, ‘What were you going to do if I didn’t come help you?’ And he said, ‘Well, God would be my lawyer,’ ” Powers recalled.

Even God would find it difficult to prevail in a Trump-era immigration court.

The Trump administration has put barrier after barrier in the way of people seeking due process in immigration courts. It overturned a long-standing policy of releasing most pregnant women on bond rather than detaining them. It made it more difficult for a detained immigrant to obtain bond or parole while legal proceedings continue. It created a quota system aimed at getting judges to quickly end immigration proceedings.

In the latest move, the administration suspended a highly effective program that informs detained immigrants of their rights and explains the deportation process.

Yet again, we look to Congress to correct the bizarre and spiteful policy that Trump aims at immigrants.

These changes come to a system that already tilted against the people facing deportation (some of whom turn out to be legal residents). The government has no obligation to provide an attorney to those who can’t afford one — unlike in criminal proceedings — so only a third of people facing deportation are represented by counsel.

To help fill that void, the George W. Bush administration in 2003 created the Legal Orientation Program. Nonprofit agencies receive federal grants to educate detainees about their rights, the deportation system, and relief that may be available to them.

The program has been a remarkable success. It shortens the duration of deportation cases. That decreases detention costs. A 2012 study found that the Legal Orientation Program created savings of $18 million a year — a great return on investment for a program that costs $8 million annually.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has praised the program. Immigration judges love it. It saves taxpayer money. And now the Trump administration has suspended the program after April 30, purportedly to study the program’s effectiveness.

The administration’s reasoning is shallow, and its true intentions transparent. As the American Bar Association and others have pointed out, the administration could have studied the program without stopping it.

Melissa Lopez, executive director of El Paso’s Diocesan and Migrant Refugee Services, said suspending LOP and the other immigration court changes made by Trump have one purpose.

“I think it’s part of their collective plan to severely limit the number of people immigrating to the United States,” said Lopez, whose program provides LOP services to thousands of immigrants at three detention centers in West Texas and New Mexico. She’ll have to lay off seven people when the program ends at the end of the month.

Austin-based American Gateways serves 8,000 people a year through its programs. Executive Director Rebecca Lightsey said they’ll try to find a way to keep the program going when federal funding is shut off, but it will be difficult. LOP grants make up a third of the agency’s budget.

“We just really cannot bear the thought that they would have absolutely nowhere to turn for the critical information that we have been giving them,” she said.

The Legal Orientation Program is one of those rare areas where all sides of the immigration debate should find common ground. It allows for the quicker deportation or departure of people who clearly lack the legal right to be in the country, while providing some level of due process for those who may have a right to stay. El Paso’s Lopez said her Legal Orientation Program staff have found U.S. citizens facing deportation.

If the administration refuses to reverse this senseless decision, Congress should act. It already appropriated funds for the Legal Orientation Program in the 2018 spending bill.

If the Trump administration wants to study the program’s effectiveness, do it while the program continues to operate. The 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution guarantee all persons the right to due process of law. This administration continues to undermine that fundamental right.