The Executive Office for Immigration Review's Legal Orientation Program, established in 2003, gives legal orientations and referrals for pro bono representation for adults in immigration detention facilities. However, the first and now second Trump administration has sought to defund and change the Legal Orientation Program to the dismay of groups that provide legal services to those in custody.
"EOIR is requesting removal of the statutory language that currently requires spending of $27.5 million on the Legal Orientation Program," which "provides various inefficient and wasteful services to aliens and is directly contrary to the president's policies," proposed appropriations language from the DOJ says. "Removing the required LOP funding levels allows EOIR to better manage its limited resources and increase capacity to help address the backlog."
According to the administration, studies show that the program duplicates the efforts of immigration judges during initial master hearings, leads to increased processing times and provides no increase in representation when compared to participants who don't receive LOP representation. "The LOP program costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year with no return on investment," the DOJ said.
The department made the same bid to ax LOP funding in its fiscal 2026 budget request to no avail.
Before that, when President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, he issued an executive order requiring an audit of the Legal Orientation Program and other federally funded programs that aid noncitizens. The DOJ subsequently issued a stop-work order for these programs.
On Jan. 31, 2025, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and other groups that provide immigrant legal services and have served as subcontractors for the program filed a lawsuit challenging the administration's actions.
"They are a hasty and pretextual attack on the immigration system and on noncitizens to deprive them of information they need to secure the due process guaranteed to them under the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act," the complaint says.
They noted that during the first Trump administration, officials tried and failed to end the programs, which have bipartisan support.
In July 2025, a federal judge threw out the challenge, saying the groups failed to show the administration exceeded its authority. The legal groups appealed to the D.C. Circuit shortly after and are awaiting a decision.
Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, told Law360 on Thursday the budget request is "both shortsighted and a real blow to all the work to increase due process that nonprofits have been doing for decades."
The Legal Orientation Program has been "incredibly successful for a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things," he added.
In the litigation process last year, the government said it wanted to "federalize" the program, meaning it would administer the program instead of nonprofits doing so, but "there is no indication that that's actually happening," Lukens said.
EOIR did not immediately respond for comment.
For EOIR overall, the administration is asking for $899 million for fiscal 2027, which is a 12.4% increase over the enacted fiscal 2026 level. The DOJ said in its budget request that immigration court hearings are currently scheduled through fiscal 2030 due to the pending case backlog.
"Stopping illegal immigration is an administration priority," the budget document says. "It remains critically important that EOIR have sufficient resources to keep pace with DHS enforcement efforts."
--Additional reporting from Madeline Lyskawa and Nadia Dreid. Editing by Marygrace Anderson.
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