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In response to complete chaos at our southern border, the Biden administration will be providing additional legal services to migrants entering the immigration system in seven border towns, according to a government solicitation for contractors, published Thursday.
Increasing migrant access to legal services has long been a goal of the Biden administration. While the new Legal Access at the Border (LAB) program will help prepare migrants for the immigration legal process, it will not directly provide them with attorneys.
This plan highlights the need for increased legal services for migrants and includes those migrants placed in the re-implemented “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally named the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
The move matters because “many legal aid organizations who would typically provide pro bono legal services to migrants have refused to assist with MPP, due to serious humanitarian concerns associated with the program. They’ve criticized President Biden for restarting it, even though it was ordered by a court,” according to a report in Axios.
TX: Video from LE source—Last night, 400+ migrants, mostly Venezuelan self-surrender in Eagle Pass after crossing the river. Eagle Pass typically sees more smuggling cases— For the last 3 nights, they have been dealing with this surge. I am told it is not as busy there tonight. pic.twitter.com/MJYnY6G4QJ
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) January 21, 2022
The new orientation program would be run by contractors and overseen by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
“It’s part of the agency’s broader efforts to increase information and representation, which it calls the ‘Access EOIR’ initiative,” spokesperson Kathryn Mattingly told Axios.
The new program will be geared towards migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, those in Border Patrol custody, in the MPP program or who may be enrolled in MPP or otherwise placed in deportation proceedings, according to the documents, published on SAM.gov, and will be set up in San Diego and Calexico, CA; Nogales, AZ; and in El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville, TX.
💔 Officials encountered this little boy all by himself at the crossing in Eagle Pass. They believe he is about 6 years old but they don’t know where he is from.
This is a very tough reality of illegal immigration.
*The pup is ‘Savage Sam’ and was adopted by National Guard* pic.twitter.com/5W6TWsRfKX
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) January 22, 2022
This announcement follows a recent Breitbart article that cites a report it exclusively obtained from the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). In it, the IRLI reveals that American taxpayers, often without their knowledge, are being charged millions of dollars to provide illegal aliens with free legal representation to fight their deportations from the United States.
“Under U.S. law, illegal aliens and other non-citizens facing deportation orders do not have a right to legal representation because immigration law is a civil matter, not a criminal one,” IRLI investigators noted.
As a result, the costs are falling on American taxpayers.
According to IRLI estimates, taxpayers in 22 cities with deportation defense programs will be charged at least $5.2 million so the illegal aliens will have free lawyers.
The estimate, considered to be “conservative,” does not include many other localities that have similar in-house deportation defense programs, according to IRLI investigators.
Already, illegal aliens are costing American taxpayers approximately $134 billion annually, according to the latest estimate from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
This year, alone, FAIR estimates taxpayers will have to pony up at least $6.6 billion, citing President Biden’s mass release of illegal aliens over the last 12 months.
“These programs are an insult to every law-abiding American citizen and legal resident,” IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox told Breitbart News. “Our laws clearly state that non-citizens charged with civil offenses do not have a right to legal representation. Yet we have radical ant-borders groups starting these programs and sticking unknowing citizens with the bill. It’s outrageous.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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