Trump Cuts Leave Thousands of Kids to Face Immigration Court Alone

Each year, thousands of unaccompanied children come to the United States, seeking protections from violence and instability in their home countries. However, last month, the Trump Administration cut funding to more than 80 legal services providers of a program that gives minors with free legal representation in immigration court proceedings. Advocates in New York and across the country warn the move will leave children, some as young as 18 months, with the burdensome task of representing themselves in a new country and in a language they don’t speak.

“If representation isn’t restored and is ultimately eliminated, children as young as two years old, younger even, would be forced to go to court, sit across from a very trained government Department of Homeland Security attorney trying to defend their case on their own, already in a language that is not their primary language,” said Ailin Buigues, managing director of legal representation programs at Acacia Center for Justice, a national organization that provides legal services to unaccompanied children.

Advocates and legal service providers fighting to restore this legal service say many of the unaccompanied children have fled abuse, abandonment, or neglect or have experienced forced labor or trafficking. Buigues added that while some of them are seeking to be reunited with their families and to have an opportunity for education, others are fleeing religious persecution and climate issues. But without legal representation, these minors face a greater risk of deportation.

Last fiscal year, the Office of Refugee Resettlement received 98,356 referrals for unaccompanied children from the Department of Homeland Security. At the time the funding was cut, more than 26,000 children were receiving representation through the program and its legal service providers. Meanwhile, more than half of Americans support the initiative to provide legal services to unaccompanied children, as 61% indicated they are in favor of the program in a national survey.

In New York, the majority of unaccompanied children arrive from countries in Latin America such as Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador. Legal representation is often the deciding factor between safety and deportation for immigrant children, said Angela Fernández, executive director at Safe Passage Project, which represents immigrant children in New York. “The Unaccompanied Children Program is not just a lifeline,” she said. “It is a moral obligation to protect immigrant children.”

Safe Passage Project has won 90% of its cases of relief for children, but Fernández says without legal representation, that success rate drops dramatically to below 20%.

“These children are navigating one of the most complex legal systems in the country — without a right to court-appointed counsel,” Fernández said. “Children may be deported to the very dangers they fled without ever having a real chance to make their case.”

Michelle Ortiz, director of US Legal Services at the International Rescue Committee, which provided direct legal representation to 500 children last year as a legal service provider, said she has represented children who have been unable to articulate their full names and has had conversations around whether to carry the child into the courtroom because of how young they are. She said it is unconscionable to expect any child to go to court and be up against an ICE prosecutor who’s actively trying to deport them.

“We’re expecting kids as young as 18 months old, five years old, nine years old, even 15 years old, to navigate these really complex proceedings that have a really big impact on their whole future, whether they will be safe from harm, from abuse, or from exploitation,” Ortiz said. “So much is riding on this for these kids, and the government is now expecting them to present their cases alone.”

Children who don’t have lawyers are less likely to show up to court since they may feel intimidated, Ortiz said, but that would put them at further risk of detention and deportation. On the other hand, she said that those that do have representation are more likely to receive legal protections.

“I think that all Americans should be asking themselves why this administration is prioritizing returning children to danger, and why is the government not prioritizing providing support that children need to apply for status which they are legally entitled to,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project in Arizona, which provided more than 1,000 children with direct legal representation in 2023.

She said that the lack of attorneys will not be a deterrent to unaccompanied children who come to the U.S., since many do not know what an attorney is, and it will put children at risk of dangerous situations. In one instance, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project represented an unaccompanied girl who fled abuse from her aunt in Guatemala. When her aunt had given her a tea that contained ingredients to cause a miscarriage against her will, the girl came to the U.S. seeking to be reunited with her mother — and the stakes were high because she was pregnant again. After she was put into a children’s shelter and put into removal proceedings, she came under the representation of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project who helped her win her asylum case.

Following the Trump Administration’s cut to the Unaccompanied Children Program’s funding, 11 legal provider groups filed a lawsuit in late March to restore the program and continue providing representation to children. Earlier this month, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to continue legal services through the program until April 16, which was then extended till April 30.

However, Buigues said that the Acacia Center for Justice has not yet received notice from the Department of Interior or from the government to resume those services at this moment, so the program is still halted. Since the government has not been following the restraining order on the ban, which should have given the program funding until the deadline, the lawsuit is also including a “motion to enforce” the ruling.

“Kids actively have court this week; they had court last week, and they’re going to continue to have court and desperately need the guidance and support of a trusted adult to be able to navigate this process,” Buigues said.

In addition to the lawsuit, there is also a legislative effort underway to secure access to representation for immigrant children. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is preparing to reintroduce the Children’s Safe Welcome Act in the coming months, which would reverse the Trump administration’s order to cut funding for the Unaccompanied Children Program.

Still, immigrant justice advocates and service providers remain concerned that children will continue going to court and being processed through the immigration court system without a lawyer under the contract. In the time since the funding was terminated, some of the over 80 legal service providers have continued representation being sustained on the financial reserves and donations until funding is restored.

“It’s going to be a long battle,” Avila-Cimpeanu said. “We are fully committed to fighting for the protection of children and to ensure that they have meaningful access to counsel and that the government complies with its requirement to fund this work.”

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