The unaccompanied migrant children could lose federally funded legal representation starting Friday as a contract quarrel between the Trump administration and nonprofit legal groups menaces to stop services nationwide.
By Catholics for Catholics
Thousands of immigrant children who reached the U.S. with no parent or guardian and are confronting deportation could lose access to legal representation this week with the expiration of a federal contract funding nonprofit legal services, forcing some organizations to scale back or end aid entirely.
The unaccompanied migrant children could lose federally funded legal representation starting Friday as a contract quarrel between the Trump administration and nonprofit legal groups threatens to stop services nationwide, according to a story by Newsmax.
The organizations say the administration has withheld roughly $65 million in payments for work already completed, while the Department of Health and Human Services says the lead contractor declined a new agreement that included additional reporting requirements.
The dispute centers on the Acacia Center for Justice, which administers the federal Unaccompanied Children Program through HHS, according to an ABC News report. The organization supervises more than 100 subcontractors that lend legal services to more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant minors.
The skirmish comes as President Donald Trump’s administration prolongs its clampdown on illegal immigration, including attempts to locate unaccompanied migrant children already living in the United States. DHS agents visited earlier this year several Washington-area nonprofit groups that provide legal services to migrant minors.
In response, an alliance of legal service providers filed an emergency motion in federal court last week looking to compel the government to renew payments, contending that the funding freeze has already triggered furloughs and threatens to dismantle the legal network serving migrant children.
“Plaintiff organizations are already beginning furloughs and a fragile network of legal services organizations dedicated to serving unaccompanied children is on the brink of collapse – preventing Plaintiffs from taking on new representations, impeding them from retaining highly experienced staff and institutional memory, and even causing many children to lose their lawyers,” the groups said in the filing, which was obtained by ABC.
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