Trump administration cuts legal help for migrant children traveling alone

• March 21, 2025

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Friday ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.

The Acacia Center for Justice contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied migrant children under 18, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters.

Acacia said they were informed Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was terminating nearly all the legal work that the center does, including paying for lawyers for roughly 26,000 children when they go to immigration court. They’re still contracted to hold the legal orientation clinics.

“It’s extremely concerning because it’s leaving these kids without really important support,” said Ailin Buigues, who heads Acacia’s unaccompanied children program. “They’re often in a very vulnerable position.”

People fighting deportation do not have the same right to representation as people going through criminal courts, although they can hire private attorneys.

But there has been some recognition that children navigating the immigration court system without a parent or guardian are especially vulnerable.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian.

Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement that the department “continues to meet the legal requirements established” by the Act as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated.

The termination comes days before the contract was to come up for renewal on March 29. Roughly a month ago the government temporarily halted all the legal work Acacia and its subcontractors do for immigrant children, but then days later Health and Human Services reversed that decision.

The program is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not.

A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated “for the Government’s convenience.”

Michael Lukens is the executive director of Amica, which is one of the providers contracting with Acacia in the Washington, D.C. area. He said with the renewal date swiftly approaching, they had been worried something like this would happen.

He said they will continue to help as many kids as they can “for as long as possible” and will try to fight the termination.

“We’re trying to pull every lever but we have to be prepared for the worst, which is children going to court without attorneys all over the country. This is a complete collapse of the system,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Does the road get harder for UCLA men’s basketball? When wasn’t it?

• March 21, 2025

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It would be easy to say the road now gets harder for the UCLA men’s basketball team, now that 10th-seeded Utah State has been vanquished and No. 2 seed Tennessee awaits the Bruins on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional.

But that would almost imply that there’s a point when the road wasn’t a grind for the Bruins. Instead, it has been a fight for every inch of progress during the program’s first season in the Big Ten Conference, with multiple road trips to the Eastern and Central time zones and many, many hours spent on planes.

Want evidence? By the time these two games in the Bluegrass country are concluded and the Bruins return to Westwood, their air miles will have surpassed an estimated 32,400. And if UCLA (22-7) knocks off the Vols and qualifies for the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis, add another 3,620 miles for their fourth round trip to Indiana this season.

Are they used to it? Have the multiple trips to the East maybe enabled the players – who, after all, do most of the heavy lifting – to get used to the process physically?

“I would ask them,” Coach Mick Cronin said. “I’m hoping so. I think so, a little bit.”

UCLA made one cross-country trip in December, to New York (6,414 miles round trip) to play North Carolina. The conference schedule included road games at Washington (1,908) and Oregon (1,476) – familiar trips from the Bruins’ Pac-12 days – along with a single game at Nebraska (2,482) and multi-game trips to Maryland and Rutgers (5,170), Illinois and Indiana (5,406) and Purdue and Northwestern (3,728), as well as last week’s Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis (3,620) and this week’s regional (3,804 round trip between LAX and Lexington).

“It is unique,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I’d like to someday talk to all those guys from the Pac-12, how they handled all the travel this year and vice versa, the Big Ten going out there. That’s a lot of traveling going on.”

But, forward Tyler Bilodeau said, “I think it’s been good for us, we’re used to it. So I think coming into (Saturday) you know, we’re used to being on the Eastern Time zone and all that, not as many fans there, being far from L.A. So, yeah, we’re definitely used to it, ready to go.”

In retrospect, Cronin wasn’t terribly shaken up about last week’s one-and-done against Wisconsin in the conference tournament quarterfinals, because it gave his team a couple of extra days of rest.

Normally, the Bruins leave the day before a game to reduce missed class time. This week they had to get here a day early for the public workouts and media obligations that come with the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t know if you (can) say easier, but you have a little time – you get that day to adjust, which we had on Wednesday,” Cronin said. “You just can’t do that (leave a day early) at UCLA. Academics are too important. And … it’s a two-game road trip in our conference, we do three of those. We’re already missing too much class, so you can’t add to it.”

One difference this week? Usually, UCLA has its own charter. For the tournament, the NCAA pays for transportation but also supplies the planes. In this case, as Cronin described it, it seems to be the difference between luxury in the skies and the flight equivalent of a school bus.

“We’re pretty spoiled,” Cronin said. “So when we got our own situation that we charter, we have Wi-Fi, and the seats actually have padding. And we have big-time meals and there’s drinks everywhere, and the people serving us love us and they know us. Not the same on the NCAA plane … you get one small bag of stale pretzels, and you can’t ask for a drink until an hour into the flight or you get reprimanded.”

(Let’s hope Mick doesn’t get his knuckles rapped for that. The man just might be the best quote in college basketball, all levels.)

Oh, and there’s this UCLA tradition: Thanks to the quarter system, final exams invariably occur at some point during the NCAA Tournament, which makes you wonder how UCLA teams won so many of them back in the day. And no, players are not allowed or encouraged to take them when they get back to L.A. Proctors accompany the team on the road and exams are administered on-site.

You’d think that the NCAA, in its promotional ads, would find a way to highlight that: “Look, here are players from a traditional basketball power taking their final exams amid March Madness! See, they really are student-athletes.”

Amid all of that, there is basketball to be played. Tennessee is 28-7 and has two players up for national defensive player of the year honors in Zakai Ziegler, a 5-foot-9 senior guard from Long Island, and Jahmai Mashack, a 6-4 guard who played alongside former Bruin (and current Minnesota Timberwolves guard) Jaylen Clark at Etiwanda High. And 6-10, 245-pound junior forward Felix Okpara has a 7-2 wingspan and has blocked 60 shots with three games of four blocks.

Okpara well could be matched up with UCLA’s 7-3 Aday Mara much of the time, although Igor Milicic Jr. is also 6-10 but listed at 225. Playing against the smaller guys – and most of them are – is a challenge, Mara said.

“You’ve got to be, like, ready, and also be quicker because they’re faster,” Mara said. “Once I get the ball or I’m closer to the basket, it’s easier. but getting into the paint or getting closer to the basket is always harder, because they try to push me in my legs, or it’s just more complicated because their center of gravity is lower, so it’s easier for them to move.”

As for the sinus infection that Mara has been playing with, and that he played through, in a game-changing 20 minutes on Thursday night against Utah State? Not a problem.

“I mean, it’s just a little bit harder to breathe,” he said. “But it’s good. It’s good.”

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

FACT FOCUS: Posts falsely claim federal judiciary members are in secret club, undermining Trump

• March 21, 2025

By MELISSA GOLDIN, Associated Press

After Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked calls this week by the Trump administration to impeach judges, social media users falsely claimed that he and other high-level legal professionals are part of a “secretive, invite only club.”

Many questioned the motives of members, hinting at coordinated efforts to oppose President Donald Trump.

Among those named was U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who Trump had demanded be removed from the bench for his order blocking deportation flights that the president was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from 18th century law.

But the group in question — the American Inns of Court — is hardly secretive given its large public presence, and there is no evidence that members are involved in nefarious activities targeting Trump. Roberts is no longer an active member and Boasberg is the president of a chapter that is no longer affiliated with the parent association.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Roberts, Boasberg and other powerful legal professionals are part of a secret, invite-only club that is working against Trump.

THE FACTS: This is false. Roberts was a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court chapter of the organization prior to his confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2005, but he is not currently an active member of the organization, according to Executive Director Malinda Dunn.

Boasberg is the president of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, but the chapter disaffiliated from the parent association about 10 years ago when it decided it no longer wanted to pay dues to the national group, Dunn said. He was an active member prior to the chapter’s decision to operate independently.

Information on the American Inns of Court is readily available online. Chapters also have their own websites, which often include details about programs they host for members, typically focused on networking, education and mentorship. Dunn said that members have a wide range of political opinions, but that the organization itself is “assiduously apolitical.”

Some on social media, however, baselessly claimed that there is more to the group than meets the eye.

“It has been revealed that Chief Justice John Roberts is part of an elite, invite-only group called the American Inns of Court, alongside some of the most openly anti-Trump judges in D.C.,” reads one X post.

And yet a check of other members reveals a diverse group. Many current and former Supreme Court justices have been members of the American Inns of Court, according to Dunn, including Sandra Day O’Connor, Neil Gorsuch, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Clarence Thomas.

Inns of Court have existed in the United Kingdom for hundreds of years. The American system, founded in 1980 out of discussions among legal professionals, including Chief Justice Warren Burger, is loosely based on this concept from across the pond.

The American Inns of Court states on its website that it is “dedicated to professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence” and that its mission is to “inspire the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring.”

O’Connor said in a 2015 video that “maintaining and improving an ethics of professionalism is what the American Inns of Court are all about.”

There are more than 300 active chapters across the U.S. Each one manages its own membership and some are limited to practitioners in a certain legal field. Roberts’ former chapter, for example, states that “members are elected to the Inn after being nominated by a current member” and that they must be “actively engaged in appellate practice.”

Dunn said chapters are advised to ensure that their members include legal professionals with different levels of experience. Some may hold membership drives to recruit new faces.

Roberts is currently an honorary bencher in The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, an inn of court in the U.K. This is a purely ceremonial role that, according to Dunn. British inns of court will always offer such a position to Supreme Court justices when they are confirmed, she said.

Representatives for Roberts and Boasberg did not respond to a request for comment.

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers sign TE Tyler Conklin to 1-year contract

• March 21, 2025

The Chargers on Friday added to their tight-end depth by signing Tyler Conklin, formerly of the New York Jets, to a one-year contract.

Conklin, a seven-year veteran, will likely compete for the starting position with Will Dissly and Tucker Fisk when training camp begins in late July in El Segundo.

Tight end was one of the thinnest spots on the roster before the Chargers signed Conklin, one of the NFL’s top possession receivers at his position. Conklin, 29, has had 50 receptions or more in each of the past four seasons, including a career-high 61 in 2023 with the Jets and 2021 with the Minnesota Vikings.

Last season with New York, Conklin caught 51 passes for 449 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

He spent four seasons with the Vikings, who drafted him in the fifth round of the 2018 draft out of Central Michigan. He began his college career as a basketball player before switching to football.

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers happy to put grueling stretch of schedule behind them

• March 21, 2025

LOS ANGELES — When the NBA made the schedule adjustments to accommodate the Lakers’ games that were postponed in January because of the Southern California wildfires, they knew this past week would be challenging.

Six games in eight days.

Three consecutive back-to-back sets, which started with road losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets on March 13 and March 14, respectively, to close a four-game trip.

With Thursday’s home loss to the Bucks, in which the Lakers were without four of their regular starters, the Lakers sealed a 3-3 record in the stretch of consecutive back-to-backs – something the team felt good about within the context of the schedule.

The Lakers were originally scheduled to host the Bucks on Tuesday.

But after the postponed Jan. 11 matchup against the San Antonio Spurs was moved to Monday – a game the Lakers won on the second night of a back-to-back after hosting the Phoenix Suns on Sunday afternoon – the game against the Bucks was also moved to later in the week.

“Big picture … feel good that you go 3-3 in this stretch,” Redick said. “It was going to be tough no matter what. The added game made it harder. I don’t think the game that exists today in the NBA and the modern NBA player is like [built to do this]. I wouldn’t be either if this was what I came up in and this was the game that I had to play every night. It’s different than when I first started.

“You’re not built to play six games in eight nights. The game doesn’t allow you to play six games in eight nights. It’s just impossible. That’s why we, I don’t think, have four in five anymore.”

The NBA stopped scheduling four games in five nights beginning with the 2022-23 season.

But with the NBA needing to shift around the schedule during an already compact time of the season, the Lakers dealt with a scheduling rarity.

“What our guys just went through, it’s difficult,” Redick added. “And the old-heads are gonna talk about how physical it was in the [1980s] and [1990s] and that’s fine. But the level of physicality in our game and the way that the court has to be covered and all the movement, it’s tough. And I’m just glad to be on the other side of it and hopefully going forward we are healthy and can make a push here.”

Making this stretch worse was the Lakers’ lack of available players.

Only rookie wing Dalton Knecht and two-way contract guard Jordan Goodwin played in all six games since March 13.

Austin Reaves sat out Thursday’s game and Luka Doncic missed two of the previous six games.

Starting forwards LeBron James (strained left groin) and Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) were already sidelined before the six games in eight days. Hachimura has missed 10 consecutive games while James has missed seven.

The Lakers close their five-game homestand on Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls.

“We did good,” Knecht said. “Some of us got banged up during that road trip and all these back-to-backs. But I think all of us were going out there fighting every single game.”

BULLS AT LAKERS

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM

​ Orange County Register 

OC district attorney ordered to turn over documents to ACLU in racial bias case

• March 21, 2025

A judge has ordered Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer to turn over certain office policies and training manuals to civil rights groups that sued as part of an effort to determine if there is racial bias in his prosecutions.

Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm made the ruling Thursday, March 20, in a 2022 public records lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of Northern and Southern California as well as the activist group Chicanxs de Unidxs de Orange County.

“The judge’s order exposes what Spitzer had long denied: that his office operated with a policy of violating transparency laws, which concealed evidence of racial disparities in prosecutions,” said Emi MacLean, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and attorney for the plaintiffs.

The district attorney’s office responded that much of the data the ACLU has been seeking already is posted on the office’s website.

The groups sought the court order to scrutinize Spitzer’s enforcement of the state Racial Justice Act, which prohibits arrests and prosecutions based on race. Spitzer was said by a judge in June to have violated the act by making racist comments in a double-murder case against a Black defendant.

The lawsuit also pointed to an ACLU report in February 2022 that revealed 5.8% of the criminal defendants charged in Orange County are Black, although the group makes up only 2.1% of the population. The district attorney’s office also is more likely to charge Black and Latino defendants with felonies and sentencing enhancements than White people, and less likely to offer Black and Latino people diversion as an alternative to jail, the report said.

The study was largely based on the years before Spitzer took office in January 2019.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Friday, March 21

• March 21, 2025

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Friday, March 21

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

FRIDAY’S SCORES

SOFTBALL

BISHOP GORMAN KICKOFF CLASSIC

At Las Vegas, NV

Rosary 6, Coronado (NV) 0

Reed (NV) 11, Trabuco Hills 1

Lehi 6, Trabuco Hills 2

Douglas (NV) 2, San Clemente 0

San Clemente 8, Christian (El Cajon) 4

Mission Viejo 9, Reno (NV) 3

Salpointe Catholic (AZ) 3, Rosary 2

Carson 3, Mission Viejo 2

​ Orange County Register 

Under threat from Trump, Columbia University agrees to policy changes

• March 21, 2025

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Under threat from the Trump administration, Columbia University agreed to implement a host of policy changes Friday, including overhauling its rules for protests and conducting an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department.

The changes, detailed in a letter sent by the university’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, came one week after the Trump administration ordered the Ivy League school to enact those and other reforms or lose all federal funding, an ultimatum widely criticized in academia as an attack on academic freedom.

In her letter, Armstrong said the university would immediately appoint a senior vice provost to conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of its regional studies programs, “starting immediately with the Middle East.”

Columbia will also revamp its long-standing disciplinary process and bar protests inside academic buildings. Students will not be permitted to wear face masks on campus “for the purposes of concealing one’s identity.” An exception would be made for people wearing them for health reasons.

In an effort to expand “intellectual diversity” within the university, Columbia will also appoint new faculty members to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies department. It will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand programming in its Tel Aviv Center, a research hub based in Israel.

The policy changes were largely in line with demands made on the university by the Trump administration, which pulled $400 million in research grants and other federal funding, and had threatened to cut more, over the university’s handling of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The White House has labeled the protests antisemitic, a label rejected by those who participated in the student-led demonstrations.

A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for the Education Department.

As a “precondition” for restoring funding, federal officials demanded that the university to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.”

They also told the university to ban masks on campus, adopt a new definition of antisemitism, abolish its current process for disciplining students and deliver a plan to ”reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions practices.”

Historians had described the order as an unprecedented intrusion on university rights long treated by the Supreme Court as an extension of the First Amendment.

On Friday, freedom of speech advocates immediately decried Columbia’s decision to acquiesce.

“A sad day for Columbia and for our democracy,” Jameel Jaffer, the director of Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a social media post.

​ Orange County Register