JFCS sues DHS on behalf of six children

Jewish Family and Community Services has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Markwayne Mullin on behalf of six children.

The 159-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, argues that procedural changes adopted by immigration courts have eliminated due process protections Congress enacted in 1990 for abused, neglected and trafficked immigrant children.

Dana Gold, JFCS’ chief operating officer, said that this is the first time in the organization’s history that it has been a plaintiff in a lawsuit of this kind but that they felt it was necessary to protect their clients.

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“What we’ve seen locally was a pattern of taking away their legislative protections,” Gold said. “When you have minor children who have no one to stand up for them, they do have the rule of law to protect them. We have to stand up for that rule of law to be applied as it was meant to be done.”

Sarah Hough, JFCS’ director of immigration legal services, said that there have been attempts to limit the children’s access to counsel, curtail their opportunity to pursue legal cases and to “do an end around the legislative protections they are entitled to under a number of categories.”

“The only option left for some our clients was to take federal action to protest the policies themselves,” she said.

JFCS’ participation as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Hough explained, isn’t litigating any individual cases, rather, it’s litigating against the policies themselves, which she said, has dramatically impacted the work of JFCS and the organization’s ability to perform work “ethically and do the things we are required to do for these kids under the law.”

If JFCS wants to continue to represent the children in a meaningful way, she said, it was left with no option but to pursue a legal course of action.

There have been issues, Hough explained, since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Beginning in February 2025 when, she said, JFCS received a stop work order from the administration cutting off aid and service to immigrants. In March, the government terminated JFCS’ and other organization’s contracts. That order has been a subject of ongoing litigation in which the courts have consistently said the federal government must pay for the services under the contracts and reaffirmed that children are entitled to representation, Hough said.

The pace of immigration hearings is central to the case, Hough said. Children are now required to appear in courts every two or three weeks, in proceedings JFCS’ lawsuit describes as “decoupled from the steps necessary to establish their eligibility for relief.”

The children at the heart of the lawsuit have special immigration juvenile status, Hough explained — a protection Congress created for children determined by a state court to have been a victim of abuse, neglect or abandonment — that established a legal pathway to citizenship when their visa time is eligible.

The accelerated pace, she said, affects attorneys’ ability to do the investigative work on the filings needed to protect their clients.

It also affects the children, Hough said.

“The kids are missing school,” she said. “The way the court is structured, everybody sits in an online waiting room until their case is called. In some cases, that can be an entire day. So, every two weeks the kids are being pulled away from their activities, doctor’s appointments, school,” she said.

On top of that, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in June that the time between earning special immigration juvenile status and the granting of a green card is so long “it is no longer in the interest of the government to wait and that they should be ordered to be removed,” Hough said.

That order has been extended to children who have undergone “a severe form of human trafficking,” she said, “whether it’s for labor or sex.”

JFCS decided to file suit in July when one of the children it represented was ordered removed.

“The kids are entitled to this relief under law, but we were no longer able to effectively advocate for them in the immigration court while the policy remains in place,” Hough offered.

When the children are returned to their countries of origin, Gold said, they are trafficked again by the same people who abused them the first time.

“That’s why this protection was put in place and now the government is violating its own policy to protect these children,” Gold said.

As to the time the children are waiting between gaining special immigration juvenile status and the time they can apply for a green card, Gold is clear, “It’s not their fault.”

“It’s because the courts are backed up,” she said. “Through no fault of their own, these children who have had horrible things happen to them are being ordered removed.”

Because of that, Gold said, JFCS and its leadership determined that they needed to “protect the children,” and “hold the government accountable to the legislations and protections that they had put in place.”

At the time of the Chronicle’s interview with Gold and Hough, though the government had not responded in court to JFCS’ lawsuit, a DHS spokesman quoted in JFCS’ statement said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to stop human trafficking of children.

“President Trump and DHS are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state and local law enforcement officers to reunite children with their families,” the spokesperson said. “All illegal aliens receive due process.”

JFCS lost $4 million last year due to decisions by the administration, Gold said, noting that every aspect of the organization’s work has been impacted by the Trump administration.

“We’re looking at losing another $800,000 this year and who knows what happens if this contract remains terminated,” she said. “Our ability to continue to be present in the community and strategize around and find ways to respond, so we can continue to be here to provide immigration legal services, providing food, providing trauma counseling, providing career services, all those things are much harder now.”

As to the children affected, Hough is clear.

“Through their short lives, these kids have faced situations that no one should ever have to face and yet, they come here with hope. They give us their trust. They’re brave enough to share their stories. It’s incumbent upon us to honor that trust from them, to advocate as best we can and try to keep them safe and protect them from being returned to unimaginable circumstances,” Hough said.

JFCS’ lawsuit asks the court to vacate the administrative changes at issue and to prevent the removal of the six children while they pursue their claims. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org