Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn't think immigrants facing deportation proceedings in the U.S. should be informed of their legal rights and options, so he sought to end the Bush-era Legal Orientation Program designed to do just that. The Washington Post writes:
After objections from immigration lawyers and lawmakers, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday that he would not suspend a legal-aid program for detained immigrants while it undergoes a review. [...]
Sessions, an immigration hawk, said the U.S. immigration courts had planned to suspend the program starting as early as next week. At a budget hearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, he signaled that he had received questions about pausing the program from lawmakers in both parties, including the subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and its ranking Democratic member, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.).
“I have previously expressed some concerns about the program,” Sessions said. “I recognize that this committee has spoken on this matter, and, out of deference to the committee, I have ordered that there be no pause while the review is being conducted.”
The legal program serves some 50,000 detained immigrants per year. Sessions clearly still wants to end the program, but he'll hold off while his agency's Executive Office for Immigration Review weighs how cost-effective it is.
The nonprofit group that's contracted to run the program, the Vera Institute of Justice, estimates that about 8 in 10 detainees don't have representation in immigration court.
The Legal Orientation Program sends lawyers and paralegals to detention centers to hold hour-long group sessions with detainees to explain their rights, how the court process works and their possible defenses to deportation. They also meet with detainees individually and refer them to free or low-cost lawyers, but do not represent them in court.
Apparently, providing detainees with basic information about their legal rights and the proceedings is just a bridge too far for Sessions.