Stop work order comes after Free Beacon investigation into Acacia Center
The Trump administration this week ended funding for an immigrant legal group that says the immigration system is “intentionally designed” to exploit minorities and has called for disciplinary action against attorneys and judges who fail to use correct pronouns for illegal aliens during court proceedings.
The Acacia Center for Justice said Tuesday that the Department of the Interior ordered it to “stop all work” on its contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied alien children—those apprehended at the border without parents. Acacia Center is the lead contractor on a $769 million contract to provide the services.
The agency did not provide a specific reason for the stop work order. But the Trump administration has waged a broad effort through the Department of Government Efficiency, the quasi-agency led by Elon Musk, to cut wasteful federal spending. DOGE has set its sights on spending for DEI programs and other progressive initiatives.
While Acacia Center says its federal programs help illegal aliens navigate the complex immigration and deportation process, it also pushes activist rhetoric about the immigration system, the Washington Free Beacon reported this month.
Acacia Center, launched in 2022, argues that “no immigrant should be detained,” that the use of ankle monitors to track illegal aliens “must be abolished,” and that the use of local law enforcement to carry out immigration enforcement “must be dismantled.”
Acacia Center says the immigration detention and deportation system is “intentionally designed to exploit, exclude, criminalize, detain, and deport” people deemed to be “undeserving of inclusion in our national fabric, particularly Black and brown people.”
In a report last year, Acacia Center recommended that attorneys and judges who appear in the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that handles immigration cases, should face disciplinary action if they fail to “affirm gender identity for noncitizens” during court proceedings.
The center relies on dozens of subcontractors for its legal programs, many of which oppose Trump’s immigration and deportation policies.
Acacia Center has given nearly $6 million to the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, formerly known as the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, to serve as a subcontractor. Amica Center, which spun off from the Acacia Center in 2023, has sued the Department of Justice over its pause to several federal grants programs to provide legal services to illegal aliens. But while Amica Center claims in the lawsuit that the funding freeze will force it to lay off staff, the group is also running Facebook ads calling to “dismantle Trump’s deportation machine,” the Free Beacon reported.
Acacia Center says it provides legal representation through the federal program to 26,000 unaccompanied alien children, including many who have been trafficked or exploited.
“The administration’s decision to suspend this program undermines due process, disproportionately impacts vulnerable children, and puts children who have already experienced severe trauma at risk for further harm or exploitation,” said Acacia Center executive director Shaina Aber.
The Department of the Interior did not respond to a request for comment.
