First Trump Came for Immigrants. Then He Came for Their Lawyers.
Last year, on Labor Day weekend, an immigration attorney named Cooper Richardson spent her Saturday calling the Phoenix-area shelter where one of her clients—a child from Guatemala—was being held. She was checking to see if Immigration and Customs Enforcement was on the way: Her colleagues at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project had received […]
In early 2025, the Trump administration unleashed a wave of chaos on the nonprofit legal aid organizations that stand as the backbone of support for migrants in the United States. These groups, tirelessly working with limited resources and long hours, have been under relentless attack by the federal government, which has sought to cut their budgets and defund their vital services.
The Unaccompanied Children Program, a crucial initiative providing legal representation for over 20,000 young migrants, was the first to be targeted. With the program's termination, nearly $267 million in federal spending on legal aid for migrants was threatened. The White House's efforts extended beyond this single program, as they also aimed to dismantle initiatives supporting families who had been separated during the previous administration, as well as basic legal orientation services for immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The impact of these attacks was particularly devastating in Texas, where the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) faced a staggering loss. RAICES' CEO, Dolores Schroeder, revealed that the cancellation of the Unaccompanied Children Program, which constituted over half of the organization's annual budget, forced the layoff of 159 employees—an additional blow to the 61 layoffs that had already occurred after the elimination of funding for refugee resettlement programs.
The atmosphere within RAICES' offices turned chaotic as employees struggled to comprehend the sudden changes. Colleagues were left in shock, unsure of their next steps and grappling with questions about leadership and the organization's future. Georgianna Pisano Goetz, an employee, vividly recalled the sense of uncertainty that permeated the workplace, likening it to a "real madhouse."
As the situation unfolded, Goetz and her colleagues found themselves in constant communication, sharing information about layoffs and seeking guidance on how to navigate this unprecedented crisis. The sheer scale of the budget cuts and defunding efforts by the Trump administration left many immigration attorneys feeling overwhelmed and desperate, as they fought to maintain their services for those in need amidst the mounting political pressure.
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