Immigrant advocacy groups file lawsuit after legal orientation programs are shuttered

A group of immigrant advocacy centers and nonprofits has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for shutting down legal orientation programs for immigrants, including people detained at ICE detention facilities.

The lawsuit was filed a week after the Department of Justice told legal service providers who receive federal funding to stop providing legal orientation and other work intended to support immigrants at immigration court and detention facilities.

“With increased detentions, rapid deportation processes, and new detention centers, legal access to these detention centers to ensure these activities are being carried out following applicable laws has never been more important,” the lawsuit says. “The Programs at issue here are thus essential: they provide basic due process to noncitizens and they ensure lawyers are regularly inside detention centers to observe or be told about potential legal violations.”

The groups argue that legal orientation programs were stopped without advanced notice and that many of the nonprofits lost access to detention facilities across the country.

“By denying Program providers access, Defendants ensure that no legal service providers’ eyes are watching what the government does inside,” the complaint says.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the 51-page complaint, the groups argue that because immigration courts don’t guarantee individuals the right to counsel, the programs are necessary because they give noncitizens facing deportation critical access to basic legal information.

The programs that were shut down include the Legal Orientation Program; the Immigration Court Helpdesk; the Family Group Legal Orientation Program; and the Counsel for Children Initiative, which provides legal representation to children in immigration court proceedings.

“The information the Programs provide is the most basic level of the due process to which noncitizens in removal proceedings are entitled,” the complaint says.