A pro-immigration group suing the Trump administration to unfreeze federal grants for immigration programs says its aim is to provide constitutionally protected due process rights for illegal aliens facing deportation. But the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights’ rhetoric—including in ads it runs on Facebook—suggests it has far more radical goals in mind.
The Washington, D.C., nonprofit, is running advertisements on Facebook soliciting donations to "disrupt Trump’s deportation machine" and to "stop Trump’s deportation dystopia." Another ad says "See you in court, Trump," a reference to a lawsuit that the Amica Center has filed to block President Donald Trump’s executive order, "Protecting the American People Against Invasion," which paused funding for several Justice Department programs that provide legal services for illegal aliens.
Since the last fiscal year, the Amica Center has received nearly $9 million as a subcontractor to provide legal services through the Department of Justice’s Legal Orientation Program (LOP), which informs illegal aliens about immigration court proceedings, according to federal spending records. It is a subcontractor through the Acacia Center for Justice, a federally funded pro-immigration group that claims the immigration system is "intentionally designed" to exploit "Black and brown people."
In a lawsuit filed on Jan. 31, the Amica Center and several other pro-immigration groups say that Trump’s spending freeze "will have immediate, devastating, and irreparable effects" on their operations. According to the lawsuit, the Justice Department’s LOP accounts for 20 percent of the Amica Center’s budget for a program to represent adult illegal aliens.
"Amica Center has already had to divert funding for one of its LOP employees to another program and predicts it will have to make other diversions going forward, leading to potential layoffs if funding is not restored in the short-term," the lawsuit says.
That could raise concerns in Washington that taxpayer funds are going to an organization that is calling to defy the administration’s immigration policies. The Amica Center began running its Facebook ads calling to "disrupt" the deportation system on Jan. 23, shortly after Trump took office, according to Facebook’s advertisement database. The ads direct readers to a donation page on the Amica Center’s website that solicits money for its "Immigrant Defense Fund." The hyperlink for the webpage references Trump’s executive order.
The Department of Justice has resumed funding the LOP initiative and other programs as legal challenges to its spending freeze wind their way through the court system.
"We fear the DOJ will continue trying other tactics to cut these vital services," the Amica Center said in a statement on Thursday.
The Amica Center claims its services are crucial to providing due process rights to illegal aliens. It offers "Know Your Rights" counseling to illegal aliens that informs them about their legal options while facing potential deportation.
But the organization, formerly known as the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, goes far beyond offering legal advice to its clients. It also aims to influence federal policy and public perception of immigration issues.
It does so through aggressive opposition to the government’s efforts to detain and deport illegal aliens. After Trump’s electoral victory, the group said it would fight against the Republican’s "[x]enophobic and racist policies."
The Amica Center opposes the use of electronic monitors such as GPS ankle monitors for illegal aliens, as well as detention of illegal aliens with criminal histories. "It is also wrong for ICE to detain immigrants because they have criminal convictions," the group says.
The center's positions are similar to those held by other federally funded nonprofit groups that provide legal services to illegal aliens.
The Acacia Center, the lead contractor for the government program to house unaccompanied children, says the immigration system is "intentionally designed" to exploit "Black and brown people." It opposes the use of police officers for "immigration purposes," and says "no immigrant should be detained."
The Acacia Center operated under the control of the Amica Center until December 2023, according to tax filings.