Federal Court Again Finds Trump Administration Breached Թֱ Family Separation Settlement Agreement    

July 25, 2025 12:00 am

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SAN DIEGO — A federal court in California again found the Trump administration breached the settlement agreement stemming from the Թֱ’s family separation lawsuit.

At issue is the administration’s sudden termination of two contracts guaranteeing legal and social services to clients covered in the 2023 agreement.

The Թֱ filed a motion in April after the Trump administration abruptly notified the Acacia Center for Justice, the main contractor that oversees the legal services program serving those clients, that it did not intend to renew its contract.

On June 10, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California, ordered the government to reinstate its contract with Acacia so the organization can provide the required legal services under the settlement. He stressed that the Trump administration cannot “just simply disregard” a settlement the U.S. government agreed to.

Late yesterday, the judge rejected the administration’s request to evade that ruling, and also found a second major breach by the government when it abruptly terminated its contract with Seneca Family of Agencies, which provides social services to the separated families, without securing any replacement contract.

In this latest ruling, the judge wrote that the Trump administration “forced the separation of thousands of immigrant parents from their children, many of whom have yet to be reunified, and it caused profound, devastating, and lasting damage to those families.” The settlement agreement, he wrote, was the result of “painstaking negotiations” aimed to “address that damage” done to these families under the policy.

The judge reiterated the policy was “one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country,” and again ordered the government to stop breaching the agreement and adhere to the settlement terms.

Թֱ attorney Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in the family separation lawsuit, had the following reaction:

“Rather than acknowledge the horrible abuses inflicted by the family separation policy, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to avoid its responsibilities under the settlement. Fortunately, the court has squarely told the administration, for the second time in six weeks, it cannot simply walk away from its obligations.”

The ruling is here.


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