AI is accelerating the enshittification of software. There are some thoughtful applications of it, but much of what is happening is just feature glut. When AI is used by competent humans, it can accelerate problem-solving, but technology has never been capable of making up for incompetence.

Having a lawyer can mean the difference between being granted protection or being deported to danger. But it's essential that attorneys are competent and independent, not lackeys for the president.

A federal court blocked a Trump-Vance policy preventing people in immigration detention from completing required steps in their immigration applications. This is a major victory for survivors of trafficking and domestic violence, abused children, and people seeking to reunite with their families.

Death of a handyman: ICE cited “convictions for driving with expired vehicle registration” and an unspecified judgment against him in favor of the Maryland comptroller. The 47-year-old Curo-Churata "had volunteered to leave the country on his own, but a judge denied the request."

Mass deportation ideology has spread beyond the enforcement agencies into the agencies it touches, undermining their missions. Seeing it reach children in federal custody, and now the lawyers who represent them, shows it knows no moral or ethical bounds.

Congress separated child custody from adult immigration custody in 2002 for a reason. A child alone cannot navigate the immigration system or retain counsel, and should not be held by an agency prosecuting a deportation case against them.

Wendy Young of Kids in Need of Defense said a government attorney would "most likely" be encouraged to push a child toward voluntary departure rather than present the full facts of the case.

Acacia's executive director Shaina Aber said placing children's lawyers "inside of the same agency that holds children in federal immigration custody" does "not meet basic standards of independence of counsel."

Once the HHS division is running, the immigration judge works for the Justice Department, the prosecutor works for DHS and the child's lawyer works for HHS. Every adult at the table would be a federal employee.

Advocates say children have been going to hearings without lawyers. In court filings, advocates said USCRI was not representing children in court and that its lawyers often sat silently while judges considered the cases.

Since July the contract went to Burke Law Group, which withdrew, then to Our Rescue, a nonprofit founded by a former ICE agent, with a value of up to $244 million. That award is on hold after a bid protest, and USCRI holds a temporary contract.

For years HHS met that duty by funding a national network of nonprofit legal providers. The Acacia Center for Justice managed that network and about 24,000 cases until the government suspended the funding on July 31.