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Bipartisan senators rebuke White House move to end legal aid for unaccompanied minors
Asylum seekers from Honduras walk towards a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico in 2021 near Mission, Texas.
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Two senators are mounting a rare bipartisan attack against the Trump administration’s approach to due process for migrants.
Sen. Lisa Murkowsi, R-Alaska, joined Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in a letter criticizing the end of a federal contract that provides legal representation to 26,000 children who are in the U.S. without a parent or guardian.
The decision to end the contract in late March “puts children directly at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and harms any hope of a fair legal process for thousands of vulnerable children,” they wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday.
The letter, which was obtained by NPR, marks rare bipartisan condemnation from Capitol Hill of the administration’s immigration policy; so far, Democrats have sent most of the letters raising questions or concerns.

The administration last month ended a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provided legal services to unaccompanied migrant children under the age of 18, including in-court representation and clinics.
“Terminating legal representation for these children means that toddlers will now face a courtroom and judge with no adult to advocate on their behalf,” Ossoff and Murkowski wrote. “Children will be asked to make decisions about their legal rights well beyond their comprehension, with life-altering consequences.”
The Office of Refugee Resettlement is part of HHS and manages programs related to unaccompanied migrant children. HHS did not respond to a request for comment. In court filings, it has argued that federal agencies have discretion on whether to keep funding such legal services.
Dispute over 2008 trafficking law
Ossoff and Murkowski raised concerns that ending the legal funding under the contract would violate the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
The act requires “HHS to ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that all unaccompanied children have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings,” Ossoff and Murkowski wrote.
Their letter follows a similar appeal from House members last month.

Several subcontractor groups that received funding from Acacia sued over the contract termination, also arguing the stop in funding violated the 2008 law.
But lawyers representing HHS have argued that the 2008 law leaves much in the hands of the agency; it “does not create an enforceable right to government-funded representation, let alone compel the agency to maintain any particular scope of services or contractual relationship.”
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in the groups’ favor in early April, and ordered HHS to restore funding at least until the end of the month.
In response, the administration agreed to extend the contract for six more months to wind down programmatic work and find new representation for the children.
But it’s unclear what happens after that.
“After the six-month extension, there are a lot of open questions about what protections these vulnerable kids will have,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in an interview.
“It is incredibly important that children are provided with an understanding of their rights to be safe and free from harm and to report rights violations to independent legal services providers who can advocate on behalf of children.”
The Justice Department separately issued an order to stop funding work across several other Acacia programs in immigration court, including assistance for the guardians of unaccompanied children.
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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.
The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.
Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.
The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.
The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.
Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.
The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.
“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”
The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.
Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.
“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”
Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder
A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.
The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.
In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.
Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.
Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.
A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.
Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.
According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.
A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.
When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.
He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.
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