Biden-appointed federal judge keeps blocking Trump admin from nixing funding for lawyers for migrant children

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín is continuing to block the government from cutting off funding for legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children.

“This injunction precludes cutting off access to congressionally appropriated funding for its duration,” the court ordered.

The move to grant the motion for a preliminary injunction came after the court had previously granted a temporary restraining order to the same effect.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Wednesday but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ADMIN FROM TERMINATING LEGAL AID FOR UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN

President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In 2023, then-Vice President Kamala Harris broke a tie vote in the U.S. Senate to confirm then-President Joe Biden’s nomination of Martínez-Olguín to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California.

The judge has previously worked as an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, according to her biography on the court’s website.

“Working at the intersection of immigrant, economic, and racial justice, NILC deploys a multi-pronged strategy to secure lasting, transformational change,” the organization notes on its website.

100 DAYS OF INJUNCTIONS, TRIALS AND ‘TEFLON DON’: TRUMP SECOND TERM MEETS ITS BIGGEST TESTS IN COURT

Video

The preliminary injunction comes amid a challenge against the government’s move to cut off funding pertaining to legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children.

Various organizations lodged a legal challenge after the government partially terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, though Acacia itself is not a plaintiff.

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO STOP ENFORCING NEW IMMIGRATION LAW

Video

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Until March 21, 2025, the Acacia Center for Justice (“Acacia”) managed a network of 89 legal services organizations (including Plaintiffs) in 159 offices across the country providing representation to unaccompanied children through funding from HHS and ORR, under a contract between Acacia and DOI (contracting on behalf of HHS and ORR),” a complaint asserted, referring to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Interior.

The Trump administration has been facing a string of legal challenges over a variety of issues during the first 100 days of the president’s second term in office.