Legal aid for immigrant kids remains in question after Trump administration pulls contract

WASHINGTON— More than 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant youth remain at risk of losing their legal representation, one month after the Trump administration ended a federal contract with an organization that provided legal services to migrant children, advocates and attorneys said Tuesday.

Most of those children who initially had attorneys through funding provided by Congress still have access to lawyers because the Acacia Center for Justice and its network of 100 nonprofits have continued to represent the children without pay. 

But unaccompanied immigrant children who have been placed into federal custody since the contract expired after July 31 are likely without attorneys as they appear in immigration court, said Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center for Justice, which is part of Acacia’s network. 

“Many nonprofits are not taking on new cases,” Lukens said. “We have not closed any case of a child we were already representing — that obviously is not a sustainable model. We feel both ethically and morally obligated to continue as long as we can.”

Without a lawyer, fewer than 10% of immigrant children win the right to remain in the United States while their cases go through immigration court.

Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, the deputy director of Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, said the organization is currently representing 600 children, and cannot represent several children who have recently arrived in Arizona, where the group is based. 

“This is something that is happening across the nation,” she said. 

Contract expired

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied children, let a contract with Acacia for legal services expire July 31. 

The center has a network of roughly 100 organizations it works with that provide legal aid and representation to immigrant children across the country in their immigration court appearances. Acacia has provided legal services for unaccompanied minors for decades. 

Additionally, since December, HHS has not released $65 million that Congress appropriated for legal representation of unaccompanied children in immigration cases, meaning that Acacia and its legal providers have gone for months without reimbursement.

Leaders of Acacia have said the funds were withheld because attorneys refused to hand over to the Trump administration sensitive case data from the unaccompanied children, such as medical records and the types of legal relief the minors are seeking. 

After the contract expired in July, HHS initially awarded a single $150 million contract to a small Texas firm, headed by a former Trump official who served during the first administration. But the law firm, which only had two attorneys that specialized in immigration law and primarily focused on regulatory work, backed out of the contract. 

New contract

In August, the Trump administration awarded a $158 million no-bid contract to a controversial anti-human-trafficking organization called Our Rescue, a Utah-based company that was previously known as Operation Underground Railroad. 

The group was founded by Tim Ballard, who presented it as an “anti-sex-trafficking” organization. The group was featured in the conservative film “Sound of Freedom” that promoted several QAnon conspiracy theories. 

After the movie’s release, Ballard was accused of sexual misconduct by several employees and has since left the organization. 

Our Rescue now specializes in working with law enforcement related to child trafficking cases and is run by a former Department of Homeland Security official, Derek Benner. It’s unclear if there are any immigration attorneys on staff and the group does not have a history of providing legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant youth in immigration court.

Our Rescue did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment. 

Bilal Askaryar, the communications director for Acacia, said Our Rescue has not been in contact with Acacia to transfer over case information.

Avila-Cimpeanu said she has also not heard from Our Rescue to start the transition process for representing the children’s cases. 

“I think it’s very unclear what their role is,” she said. 

The Our Rescue contract will run from Aug. 7 until Feb. 6, 2027, according to its award.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.