A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Monday to restore a program that provides legal assistance to migrants facing deportation hearings who are deemed too mentally incompetent to face the proceedings on their own.

Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee to the court in Washington, said the Justice Department violated procedural law by doing away with the legal-aid program in an “arbitrary” way — and without offering a “persuasive” explanation for why it did so.

He said the program’s end meant migrants who lacked the ability to understand their deportation cases were left to fend for themselves.

“Immigration courts have come to depend on the program to move complicated cases forward fairly and efficiently,” he ruled. “Defendants have not provided any persuasive reason to conclude that the balance of the equities and the public interest tip in their favor—especially given that, by their own account, their action was motivated by mere ‘convenience’ and nothing more.”

The Qualified Representatives program began during the Obama administration in 2013, when the Justice Department decided that mentally incompetent migrants needed assistance to navigate the complexities of immigration law as they faced deportation. Those who did not have representation were to have someone appointed.

In an April memo canceling the program, the Trump administration said it was being cut “for convenience.”

Trump administration lawyers had said the program was a decision about how to spend money, and said that’s the sort of thing where courts should give Congress and the president leeway.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.