{"id":1466,"date":"2026-08-14T16:36:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:36:42","slug":"if-trump-has-his-way-20000-kids-could-face-immigration-court-without-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"If Trump Has His Way, 20,000 Kids Could Face Immigration Court Without Lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Read more Trump\u2019s Handpicked Kennedy Center Board Tries to Put His Name Back on Building<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As part of its relentless project of mass deportation, the Trump administration has taken particularly brutal aim at the most vulnerable population of immigrants: children. If the federal government has its way, about 20,000 unaccompanied minors will soon face immigration court hearings without legal representation. <\/p>\n

For decades, Congress has allocated funding for unaccompanied immigrant minors via the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), as the result of the Flores Settlement, struck after a 1993 Supreme Court decision. That agreement \u2014 established in 1997 and still in effect \u2014 made it the federal government\u2019s responsibility to ensure that unaccompanied children arriving in the U.S. are treated with a certain baseline of care. <\/p>\n

The agreement was cemented under Republican President George W. Bush, who signed a 2008 bipartisan anti-trafficking bill into law and directed the federal government to ensure the care and safety of unaccompanied migrant children, including funding their legal representation.<\/p>\n

During his first term, President Donald Trump this and several other federal programs supporting unaccompanied migrant kids. When Trump took office for a second time in early 2025, he resumed those attacks by ending a contract with Acacia Center for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization that subcontracts with hundreds of legal advocates to represent children in immigration courts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration really, from day one, tried to terminate this contract and the ability of children to have their legal rights understood, evaluated, and honored,\u201d said Shaina Aber, Acacia\u2019s executive director, in an interview. She added, \u201cWe still don\u2019t have confirmation on what is going to be the government\u2019s plan [going forward] for ensuring that children have the ability to meaningfully participate in their process and have their rights vindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the contract termination is being challenged in court, ORR last December refused to reimburse Acacia for services already rendered. This means the organization is more than six months in arrears, unable to pay its subcontractors. \u201cThey come up with novel excuses every week for why they are not paying us,\u201d said Aber. <\/p>\n

Then, in July 2026, ORR announced it would not pay Acacia until the organization turned over confidential and sensitive data about its clients. According to NBC<\/em> news, \u201cORR said it offered Acacia the opportunity to extend the contract if Acacia provides data about its clients and bills ORR when it submits applications for immigration relief.\u201d This undermines the most basic tenet of legal representation: attorney-client privilege, effectively ensuring no lawyer will touch a case unless they want to risk being disbarred.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also moved to strip funding for local shelters where unaccompanied migrant children are housed, and instead increased funding for migrant jails \u2014 such as the notorious Dilley detention center in Texas, where hundreds of children are held in horrific conditions. <\/p>\n

Six years ago, an attorney from Colorado who goes by JG*, having had a life-threatening experience with pregnancy, decided to grow her family through fostering. She was granted custody of two unaccompanied minors from Guatemala through Lutheran Family Services. At the time, the two girls were 16 years old and had experienced neglect and abuse. One was found to have been trafficked and the other had survived serious sexual abuse. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur girls didn\u2019t speak any English,\u201d explained JG. \u201cThey weren\u2019t familiar with any ways of living or the laws in the U.S. They certainly didn\u2019t understand how they could even get any sort of status.\u201d Although JG is an attorney, her specialty is not immigration law and she admitted that the intricacies of immigration law are beyond her expertise. \u201cHad they been in a courtroom all by themselves, speaking Spanish, not English, and having it translated, there\u2019s no way they would\u2019ve understood what was happening,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

When the two girls underwent their immigration proceedings, they were appointed a lawyer through the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, which is one of Acacia\u2019s subcontractors. Given the abuse and neglect they had endured, both young women obtained approval for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which affords them legal residency in the U.S. <\/p>\n

Read more Alito\u2019s Assets in Fossil Fuels Have Grown by Up to $2.9 Million, Analysis Finds<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey qualified immediately,\u201d said JG. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have had any idea what to look out for because we weren\u2019t familiar [with the program], and we had to have a lawyer tell us what we needed to be looking for in order for there to be any sort of status.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s precisely this sort of legal representation \u2014 and the outcomes it can offer \u2014 the Trump administration appears to be targeting in order to ensure swift deportation of children who would otherwise qualify for legal immigration status under U.S. laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing them line up kids in a group of 40, push them forward to pleadings, and order them removed the same day,\u201d said Aber of the current state of chaos in immigration courts. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing kids [being] told that they have to file an application for asylum within 15 days with no lawyer, and that it\u2019s on them to get a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is the federal government withholding funding for legal representation that Congress allocated, it\u2019s also diverting it into dubious alternatives. News broke in mid-August that ORR unexpectedly granted a Utah-based anti-trafficking nonprofit called Our Rescue more than $244 million in funding for a contract it never applied for to provide legal services for unaccompanied minors. The organization\u2019s founder, who formerly worked at the Department of Homeland Security, had resigned from his position at the organization in 2023 after multiple women accused him of \u2014 ironically \u2014 trafficking and abuse. <\/p>\n

Another $150 million in funding was granted \u2014 also reportedly without advance notice \u2014 to a small law firm in Texas whose founder served in the first Trump administration. The Houston-based Burke Law Group \u2014 which did not ask for the funding, and has only two lawyers of the 26 it employs with expertise in immigration law \u2014 has reportedly declined the government\u2019s offer. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, hundreds of legal aid organizations with the expertise and capacity to represent unaccompanied minors have been stripped of funding. \u201cCourtrooms are inhospitable to adults,\u201d explained JG. \u201cTo put a child who has no idea of what a courtroom is, with a judge dressed in a robe and a bunch of lawyers speaking in a language that\u2019s not adjusted for them is just cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n

She attributed the cruelty to racism. \u201cThe Trump administration is doing this as a result of our kids being Brown, and it\u2019s easier to dehumanize a Brown kid than a white kid.\u201d (Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, JG\u2019s two foster daughters are still awaiting the legal residency they were approved for two years ago, and had to give up good jobs after their work permits expired.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the government is trying to do right now is to deport as many kids as possible, even if they, under the law, should benefit from protection,\u201d Aber said. She recommends people sign onto a petition demanding the restoration of funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen children who entered this country alone go on to become poets and teachers and doctors and cherished community members,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery one of those kids had someone fighting in their corner. And that is what is at stake right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

* The name of the foster parent is being withheld to protect her identity and that of her foster children.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Scott Jennings Regularly Misleads. He Could Become Trump\u2019s Next Press Secretary.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government is withholding funding for legal representation and diverting it to dubious alternatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nIf Trump Has His Way, 20,000 Kids Could Face Immigration Court Without Lawyers - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1466\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If Trump Has His Way, 20,000 Kids Could Face Immigration Court Without Lawyers - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The federal government is withholding funding for legal representation and diverting it to dubious alternatives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1466\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T16:36:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"If Trump Has His Way, 20,000 Kids Could Face Immigration Court Without Lawyers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T16:36:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466\"},\"wordCount\":1279,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/0cd5e48934862f7a00c519c5ff00cb58.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1466\",\"name\":\"If Trump Has His Way, 20,000 Kids Could Face Immigration Court Without Lawyers - 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