Trump administration ends legal representation for unaccompanied minors

The Trump administration on Tuesday cut off funding to legal service providers who give advice and legal representation to children who crossed the border without their parents, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The memo, issued by a division of the Interior Department, ordered the Acacia Center for Justice – a nonprofit through which the program is funded - to “stop all work” associated with its contract for legal services for unaccompanied minors, effective immediately.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) contract for more than $200 million each year funds nonprofits around the country that represent about 26,000 unaccompanied minors in immigration court and offer “Know Your Rights” trainings and legal screenings for tens of thousands more.

The order comes as the U.S. DOGE Service – run by billionaire Elon Musk – is in the process of terminating a wide array of federal contracts that it has labeled wasteful and counter to its mission of streamlining the federal government.

Two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the order did not come from ORR. A spokesperson for ORR, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Immigrant advocates say the directive threatens to leave children and teenagers who benefit from the federal funds to navigate the immigration court system on their own at a time when the Trump administration is working to increase deportations.

“What this is going to do is really leave children vulnerable to exploitation and to further abuse,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in an interview Tuesday. The program ensures “children are provided with the legal knowledge and representation they need to have their rights protected.”

Migrant children who present themselves to immigration officials at the border without their parents are handed over to the custody of ORR, which works with a network of shelters, foster homes and group homes to house and care for those children.

Acacia and other legal service nonprofits who act as subcontractors provide legal screenings to those minors to see if they are eligible for a reprieve from deportation while ORR searches for qualified family members in the United States who can take over custody.

Lawyers continue providing legal representation in immigration court after children and teenagers are in the care of their family members. Acacia, the lead contractor, also monitors nearly 100 legal service providers hired as subcontractors and offers additional support such as translation services.

Aber, the group’s executive director, said the stop-work order “flies in the face” of a decades-long, bipartisan effort to ensure that minors who have been trafficked or are at risk of being trafficked can receive proper legal information and assistance.

The “Know Your Rights” trainings offered under the program ensure “that children navigating the immigration system alone understand their rights and legal obligations,” she said.

As of Jan. 3, more than 6,000 children were in federal custody in shelters and facilities run by ORR subcontractors. Many of those children are applying for asylum or special immigrant visas tailored to children, said Jonathan Ryan, founder of Advokato, a nonprofit in San Antonio offering legal services to immigrants near the southern border.

“Many thousands of kids are having the rug pulled out from under them. They’ve been promised lawyers to be with them in court,” said Ryan, who is a subcontractor through the program and represents children as young as 5 years old.

The stop-work order would not necessarily cut off legal representation for children who are already represented. If a lawyer has already filed paperwork with the court as the attorney of record for a particular case, they are obligated to continue representation or face the possibility of sanctions or bar complaints - unless they ask a judge to be removed from the case.

But the directive does immediately cut off funding for Acacia and other groups. Immigrant advocates warned that some of the legal service nonprofits that represent unaccompanied minors could be at risk of closing entirely without funding through the effort.

Under the program, subcontractors like Ryan’s typically provide the services and submit invoices through Acacia that are paid up to four months later. That leaves small nonprofits and defense groups in the lurch for thousands of dollars that may or may not be paid, Ryan said.

“I’ve signed retainers with children. I’ve looked kids in the eye and said: ‘I am here for you,’” he said. “So I will take those calls. But I’ve been turned into a pro bono attorney, a volunteer to do this work I believe in.”

The move, which did not come with any guidance to legal service providers, is likely to be contested in court. It was probably issued by the Interior Department because it contains an office that handles the ORR contract as well as similar agreements for other federal agencies.

During the first week of the Trump administration, federal officials issued a stop-work order to halt funding for a similar program that offers legal information and representation for adults in immigration detention. After a coalition of groups sued, the Justice Department rescinded the order two days later.

In the meantime, however, the effects of Tuesday’s order are already underway.

Attorneys have been pulled back from trainings inside ORR shelters, and those who don’t speak the same language as their clients may struggle to communicate to their clients without access to Acacia’s translation services, advocates said.

Aber said that, during Trump’s first presidency, lawyers funded through the program were among those who noticed that children were being separated from their parents at the border. They have also been able to monitor conditions inside some ORR shelters for signs of harassment or abuse.

Melissa M. Lopez, the executive director of the El Paso-based legal provider Estrella del Paso, said a loss in funding could lead them to cut about 30 attorneys representing scores of children.

Lopez said that the program’s benefits were clear as recently as just a few weeks ago. Two young adults, who are still considered unaccompanied minors under the law, were detained in New Mexico. Neither had a criminal record and had complied with rules and check-ins required by the court while they are in an asylum process.

But after being stopped on the way to work, they were detained for two weeks even after the government lawyers closed their case. “Had it not been for us and our attorney being involved, these young adults would still be detained,” she said.

Jennifer Podkul, chief of global policy for KIND, whose 4,500 clients through the program include children who were separated from their families under the first Trump administration, said she hopes the administration will reverse course.

“We are hopeful that this is just a review of what ORR is spending and they realize how important it is for children to have this,” she said. “I hope they will see how incredibly efficiently this money is being used.”