The Obama administration approved $310 million in free legal advice to young illegal immigrants despite federal law barring charging taxpayers for helping immigrants avoid deportation, according to a new report.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute said that the funding was provided to a top legal defense group to help unaccompanied alien children under the age of 18 land with a sponsor in the U.S.

In 2015 and 2016, contracts reviewed by IRLI showed that several worth $310 million went to one nonprofit legal group, the Vera Institute of Justice. A top director has ties to liberal philanthropist George Soros.

At issue, said the group, is immigration law that bars using tax dollars to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation. In a report, IRLI said:



The Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 292, states that aliens in removal proceedings "shall have the privilege of being represented (at no expense to the government)." Immigrant special interest groups, sometimes on behalf of unaccompanied minors, have tried since 1996 to challenge this section, claiming it violates aliens’ rights. Federal courts have always rejected these claims.



The Obama administration handled waves of immigrants from Central America with some sympathy, especially when it involved minors and younger illegal immigrants. Many of the unaccompanied alien children were part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program granting a form of amnesty.

So-called UACs have been a hot button issue for years. In 2016, for example, hearings where held to probe reports of abuse and trafficking of the younger immigrants after being placed with sponsors, sometimes illegal immigrants themselves and others linked to sex rings.

“When the federal government pays for illegal alien minors to receive direct legal representation, it does more than flout the law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI, in a statement.

He added, “These unauthorized payments have undoubtedly speeded-up UACs’ release from detention facilities to join their families, relatives, or fellow gang members — or help them reconnect with and pay ‘pandillas,’ the criminal cartels that make enormous profits from controlling human trafficking over the southern border. My guess is that average voters would not be pleased to know that such vast amounts of their tax dollars are being spent in aid of this giant criminal enterprise.”

Read the release here.