Detroit help desk for immigrants facing deportation reopens — for now

• A free help desk for those facing deportation in Detroit is back open
• The service had been shut down after an executive order by President Donald Trump
• A lawsuit filed by attorneys general, including Dana Nessel, led to a temporary restraining order

A service providing legal help to people facing deportation reopened in Detroit Immigration Court on Tuesday, about two weeks after it was ordered closed by the administration of President Donald Trump.

An executive order Trump signed Jan. 22 led to the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center receiving a stop work order, requiring it to close down a help desk that had served about 10,000 people in Detroit’s immigration court since 2021. Similar help desks in immigration courts in 17 other cities nationwide were shut down the same day.

On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order that halted Trump efforts to freeze federal payments for grants and other programs across the country. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel was among the 22 Democratic attorneys general who asked for the restraining order.

“We’re not out of the woods, anything can change,” Ruby Robinson, the senior managing attorney for MIRC, told Bridge Michigan Tuesday. “Litigation is what it is, but we are happy to provide services again starting today.”

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The help desk does not represent those facing deportation in court, but provides information about how the court operates and offers guidance about their rights.

The group, which has operated a help desk in immigration court for four years, was told to shut down their services in conjunction with an executive order signed by Trump titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

The president, in his executive order directing the federal government to prepare for deportations and detentions, said he believes "many" people who entered the nation illegally pose threats to national security or public safety and have "abused the generosity of the American people."

During the work stoppage, Robinson said he feared the help desk closure was part of an effort by the new administration to speed up the deportation process by making it more difficult for immigrants to get legal advice.

Because immigration proceedings are civil cases, immigrants do not have access to free attorneys as in criminal court.

The help desk, which provides information in multiple languages, is funded in large part through the U.S. Department of Justice.

The salaries of four full-time staff members at MIRC are funded through those federal funds. The group pleaded for donations to fill the budget hole when the stop work order was issued.

“Today is the first day of (immigration) hearings since (the temporary restraining order),” Robinson then. “Today we’re happy, but we don’t know what could happen. There are a lot of obstacles in front of us.”

In his order that initially closed the help desk, Trump argued action was necessary given the “unprecedented flood of illegal immigration” under his predecessor. 

There were a record number of border crossings between 2021 and 2023 under then- President Joe Biden, although the estimated 11.7 million immigrants in the country as of July 2023 was less than the peak of 12 million in 2008 under then-President George Bush.

Trump has taken several executive actions on immigration since returning to office Jan. 20, including orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border and ending asylum policies. He also threatened to cut off federal funding and prosecute local officials of communities that hinder deportation efforts.