WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Friday ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.
The Acacia Center for Justice contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied migrant children under 18, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters.
Acacia said they were informed Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was terminating nearly all the legal work that the center does, including paying for lawyers for roughly 26,000 children when they go to immigration court. They’re still contracted to hold the legal orientation clinics.
“It’s extremely concerning because it’s leaving these kids without really important support,” said Ailin Buigues, who heads Acacia’s unaccompanied children program. “They’re often in a very vulnerable position.”
People fighting deportation do not have the same right to representation as people going through criminal courts, although they can hire private attorneys.
But there has been some recognition that children navigating the immigration court system without a parent or guardian are especially vulnerable.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian.
Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement that the department “continues to meet the legal requirements established” by the Act as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated.
The termination comes days before the contract was to come up for renewal on March 29. Roughly a month ago the government temporarily halted all the legal work Acacia and its subcontractors do for immigrant children, but then days later Health and Human Services reversed that decision.
The program is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not.
A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated “for the Government’s convenience.”
Michael Lukens is the executive director of Amica, which is one of the providers contracting with Acacia in the Washington, D.C. area. He said with the renewal date swiftly approaching, they had been worried something like this would happen.
He said they will continue to help as many kids as they can “for as long as possible” and will try to fight the termination.
“We’re trying to pull every lever but we have to be prepared for the worst, which is children going to court without attorneys all over the country. This is a complete collapse of the system,” he said.