Trump Administration Halts Funding for Legal Representation of Migrant Children

The Trump administration notified aid organizations across the country on Friday that it would cancel a contract that funds the legal representation of more than 25,000 children who entered the United States alone, a decision that leaves them vulnerable to swift deportation.

In a memo reviewed by The New York Times, the government instructed more than 100 nonprofits to immediately cease their work representing the minors. It terminated a contract that was up for renewal on March 29.

Advocates said the move would fast-track the children’s court cases, to their disadvantage, because many would be left without counsel in adversarial immigration proceedings. Children as young as 2 who are survivors of trafficking, trauma and abuse, and who are often too young to understand their legal rights, would be returned to countries where they could face harm, the advocates said.

“Children cannot be expected to navigate the harsh and complicated immigration legal system without an attorney,” said Ashley Harrington, managing attorney for the children’s program at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network in Colorado.

“This brazen, heartless act endangers children’s lives,” she said.

The nonprofit represents about 200 minors, including three siblings, ages 7 to 13, who fled to the United States from Honduras alone last year after their parents were killed by gang members.

The number of children who have crossed the southern U.S. border each year without a parent or legal guardian has increased sharply in the last decade or so, reaching 128,000 in the 2022 fiscal year, according to government data. Most of them are from Central America.