The Trump administration is reported to have cut funding to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, one month after directing immigration enforcement agents to track down minors who had entered the US without guardians last month.
Organizations that collectively receive more than $200m in federal grants were informed that the contract through the office of refugee resettlement had been partially terminated, according to a memo issued on Friday by the interior department and obtained by ABC News.
The cut affects funding for legal representation and for the recruitment of attorneys to represent immigrant children but maintains a contract for “Know Your Rights”, a presentation given to unaccompanied immigrant children in detention centers.
Currently, 26,000 immigrant children receive government-funded legal representation, but many are representing themselves in immigration court due to a shortage of attorneys. In 2023, 56% of unaccompanied minors in immigration courts were represented by counsel, according to the Department of Justice.
In a White House memo to the justice department posted on Saturday, the executive branch identified the immigration system as one of several legal areas “where rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the President exercises core powers”.
“The immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief,” the White House said.
The memo directed the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, “to prioritize enforcement of their respective regulations governing attorney conduct and discipline”.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group currently suing the administration over deportations, called Trump’s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying the president and his allies “have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law”.
The move to cut funding for legal representation was immediately denounced by immigrant legal and welfare groups.
“The US government is violating legal protections for immigrant children and forcing them to fight their immigration cases alone,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
“Already, we are seeing the government move for the expedited removal of unrepresented children. These services are critical not only as a matter of fundamental fairness – children should not be asked to stand up in court alone against a trained government attorney – but also for protecting children from trafficking, abuse and exploitation, and for helping immigration courts run more efficiently.”
Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), said the Trump administration had gone “all-in today on endangering unaccompanied children and interfering with their right to due process, breaking with decades of bipartisan congressional support for legal services for vulnerable children”.
Toczylowski added that without representation, “the 26,000 children whose access to counsel was slashed today will be at higher risk of exploitation and trafficking and their chances of obtaining legal protection will plummet. No child should be forced to fend for themselves against a trained [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] attorney without a lawyer by their side.”
A study published by Save the Children in December found that record numbers of unaccompanied minors have come into the US since 2021.
In 2022, the US Department of Health and Human Services received a record 128,904 unaccompanied minors, up from 122,731 in the prior year, the majority coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
There are more than 600,000 immigrant children who have crossed the US-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.
According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) memo – “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation” – issued in February and obtained by ABC News and Reuters, agents are directed to detain unaccompanied immigrant children to ensure they are not victims of human trafficking or other forms of exploitation.
Ice agents are directed to categorize unaccompanied immigrants into three groups: “flight risk”, “public safety” and “border security”.
Republicans have claimed that the Biden administration “lost 300,000” immigrant children – figures that come from a Department of Homeland Security report referring to the number of minors whom agents had not been able to serve with papers to appear in court.
“The unique needs of children require the administration to ensure a level of care that takes into account their vulnerability while it determines whether they need long-term protection in the United States,” Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, said in a statement.
“To be successful in its goals, the government must partner with legal service providers and the vast network of private-sector pro bono partners who provide millions of dollars in free legal services to ensure children understand the process and can share their reasons for seeking safety in the United States.”
