Posters inside courts offering immigrants legal assistance have been taken down, replaced by ones that encourage them to “self-deport.”
The help desk for children that once stood in one of the many hallways of the West Los Angeles Immigration Court no longer operates.
And the waiting room is empty where families of children — most who don’t speak English or who had never been in a courtroom — gathered for a rudimentary lesson on the legal system before their first appearance before a judge.
“There is no help anywhere,” said Moises Morales, a 28-year-old Salvadoran who was appearing Tuesday in the West Los Angeles Immigration Court in the South Bay.
The Trump administration ended a $28-million contract with nonprofits that provided an array of legal assistance to thousands of immigrants in California and beyond — just as it infused $150 billion toward immigration and border enforcement.
The nonprofits sure were helping non-U.S. citizens.
