Administration to cut English lessons, legal aid for detained migrant children
Immigrant kids in federal custody will be deprived of English lessons, legal help and even soccer under a harsh cost-cutting plan unveiled by the Trump administration on Wednesday.
Evelyn Stauffer, a spokeswoman for President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services, told the Daily News that a “dramatic spike” in unaccompanied immigrant children arriving at the U.S. southern border forced the agency to this week begin scaling back on “activities that are not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety.”
Stauffer said that includes “education services, legal services and recreation,” such as math and English classes, soccer, ping-pong and other sports.
“Additional resources are urgently required to meet the humanitarian needs created by this influx — to both sustain critical child welfare and release operations and increase capacity,” Stauffer said, adding her agency is asking Congress for an
emergency appropriation of $2.88 billion to increase shelter capacity for immigrant kids.
Democrats and immigrant advocates excoriated the new cuts as inhumane and demanded Republicans agree to cough up the emergency funds necessary to bankroll services for the children.
“Basic educational, recreational, and legal services for unaccompanied children are imperative for their physical and mental well-being,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. “That is not only unacceptable, it could be in violation of the law. Congressional Republicans need to stop holding up the emergency supplemental negotiations and agree to necessary and reasonable protections to ensure the health and safety of the thousands of unaccompanied children.”
Some 40,000 unaccompanied children mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have been taken into federal custody after crossing the southern border this year. That’s a 57% increase from last year and puts the Health and Human Services agency on track for the biggest population of immigrant minors in custody ever.
Lawyers for the kids say the proposed cuts would violate the terms of a legal settlement regarding the treatment of unaccompanied minors in federal custody.
“What’s next? Drinking water? Food?” Carlos Holguin, an attorney who represents young detained immigrants, told The Washington Post, which first reported the drastic cuts. “Where are they going to stop?”
“We’ll see them in court if they go through with it,” he added.
Federal law requires the feds to quickly move unaccompanied minors from spartan border jails with adults to more child-friendly shelters.
The Trump administration want to keep as many migrants in detention as possible instead of releasing them into the U.S. pending hearings.
White House hardliners like Stephen Miller have openly advocated treating asylum-seekers and would-be immigrants as harshly as possible to discourage newcomers from coming in the first place.