February 25, 2025
More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019.
After the US administration suspended legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, Donald Trump’s government resumed the measure last Friday as part of its plan to expand the mass deportation from the northern country. On February 18 the Department of the Interior emailed ordering an immediate “pause” on services in the Unaccompanied Children’s Program
The suspension of legal services to unaccompanied migrant children meant that the minors would have to represent themselves in immigration courts against government lawyers without even having adequate guidance on their legal options.
The reinstatement of the legal program by the US government comes after a strong mobilization of activists and citizens called for by the Acacia Center for Justice, who in just a few days sent more than 15,000 letters to Congress requesting the reinstatement of these services.
“This decision flies in the face of ensuring children who have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking have child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests. Children with counsel are empowered with the information and assistance that ensures they not only are protected from dangerous circumstances in their community but attend their immigration proceedings and remain engaged with the court process. In fact, 94% of children with counsel attend their immigration court hearings,” said Shaina Aber, Executive Director of the Acacia Center for Justice
The program, funded through a $200 million contract, allows Acacia and its subcontractors to provide legal representation to some 26,000 children, as well as offering legal training to another 100,000.
The program is funded through a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year whether or not to renew it. The deadline for this year’s decision is March.
According to government data, more than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019.
Furthermore, only 15 percent of immigrants last September, including unaccompanied children, had a lawyer to help them in Immigration Court cases when a deportation order was issued, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
All of this is part of the “zero tolerance” policy promoted by the US president during his first term, and which is still ongoing, which led to the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border.
In this way, the children were sent to children’s shelters administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency that reports to the Department of Health and Human Services, while their parents were detained or deported.
Source: Cuba en Resumen