More than 20,000 migrant children nationwide could end up representing themselves in immigration court after the Trump administration allowed a federal contract that funded their attorneys to expire last month.
Without legal representation these children, many of whom are fleeing from abuse and trafficking in their home countries, will almost certainly be deported, according to immigration lawyers who specialize in unaccompanied child cases.
“Our analysis has shown that (children) are 99% likely to be ordered deported if (they) go to court without a lawyer,” said Bilal Askaryar, director of communications with the Acacia Center for Justice.
Acacia is the umbrella organization that, until July 31, received a $356 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children. The nonprofit distributed those funds to more than 100 legal aid organizations throughout the country.
Without that federal funding, some of those organizations are shutting down their unaccompanied children work, Askaryar said.
2-year-olds representing themselves
The federal government began paying for the legal representation of unaccompanied migrant children in 2008, after lawmakers passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. That law requires the federal government to represent children who crossed the border alone out of concern that they could be easily exploited, abused or trafficked.
Since then, the work has been contracted out to small nonprofits and legal clinics that specialize in working with immigrants and children.
“We’ve seen clients as young as 2 years old,” said Monica Valencia, managing attorney with Al Otro Lado, a San Diego-based non-profit that received federal funding through Acacia.
Immigration lawyers who work with children — particularly children who have been abused — often have to play the role of social worker and therapist.
It’s not uncommon for lawyers to bring teddy bears to their first meeting with a new child client. Or use toy models of courtrooms to prepare children for a court appearance.
“To ask them to represent themselves in court is just completely absurd,” Valencia said.
'Not political pawns'
The expiration of Acacia's federal contact comes after a long-running battle with the Trump administration.
It began in April 2025 when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent Acacia a stop work order. The conflict escalated in November 2025 when the Trump administration stopped paying Acacia invoices for work Al Otro Lado and dozens of other subcontractors had already performed.
The government’s lawyers argued in court that HHS withheld funding because Acacia refused to hand over information about their clients. Acacia said releasing personal information would violate attorney-client privilege.
Providers like Valencia say it feels like children are collateral damage in a political fight.
“Children are not political pawns,” she said. “They’re not line items in a procurement process and they should not pay the price for political agendas.”
Contracts to Trump-aligned groups?
Immigration lawyers expressed concern over reports that the federal government could continue the funding by awarding child representation contracts to law firms that have connections to the Trump administration, but have little immigration law experience.
“Instead of investing in the experienced non-profit network that has spent years protecting vulnerable children, the Trump administration is using its political accomplices to gamble with the futures of children,” Valencia said.
One of the firms, Texas-based Burke Law Group, was founded by Marcella Burke who served as a lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior during President Trump’s first term.
Burke Law Group has since declined the contract.
Another group under consideration is the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Our Rescue, which was founded by a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was appointed co-chair of a group that made anti-trafficking recommendations to the White House in 2019.
Our Rescue founder Tim Ballard left the organization in 2023 after five women filed a lawsuit alleging he coerced them into sexual acts. Ballard was also accused of sex trafficking and forced labor in a 2024 federal lawsuit that is ongoing.
“It calls into question what kind of country we want to be,” said Askaryar of Acacia. “When a child comes to our door alone or abandoned, neglected, trafficked and asks us of help, do we want to give them a lawyer who knows how to talk to them in a child-friendly way, or do we want to give them over to an organization that is just going to be a rubber stamp to deport them as quickly as possible?”
