Nonprofits representing more than 24,000 unaccompanied migrant kids said they’re at risk of shuttering their programs once a federal government contract ends Friday.
The Acacia Center for Justice, which distributes the reimbursements to nearly 100 other legal providers, is nearing the end of its contract. Meanwhile, nonprofits have sued to get the Department of Health and Human Services to pay invoices dating back to December totaling roughly $65 million, the groups said during a press conference Wednesday.
The Trump administration sought to terminate the contract for the minors’ legal representation in March 2025, and the next month a federal judge ordered it to continue funding the work. A hearing to enforce that court order is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Between the end of the contract and millions in unpaid services, some groups are preparing to wind down their services and close the programs representing unaccompanied minors, including some who remain in custody of HSS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR.
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“The government’s actions have been devastating,” said Melissa Lopez, executive director of Estrella del Paso, which provides legal representation to 243 children clients in west Texas and southern New Mexico. “I had to have a conversation with our team yesterday to let them know that based on the way things are happening, our program will close on Friday. We have tried everything we can to avoid that.”
A lack of legal representation would lead to children facing immigration court proceedings alone as deportation orders balloon. Immigration judges issued removal orders for more than 18,000 kids in June, a 73% increase from January, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Children represented by The Door in New York City have 28 asylum interviews in the coming weeks, said Meena Shah, managing director of the organization’s legal services center.
“To think about the pressure that is on these young people,” Shah said. “None of us on this call want to abandon our clients.”
In court filings, attorneys for HHS argue the department hasn’t paid the invoices because Acacia has not provided specific information about the children’s cases needed to verify that the services are covered under the contract.
The government does not dissuade children from seeking legal relief, an ORR spokesperson said in an email.
“ORR offered Acacia the opportunity to receive a second bridge based on requirements that include they provide the data on who they represent and that they bill us when they submit applications for immigration relief,” the spokesperson said. “Acacia refused to accept this bridge.”
The government had never requested that information before, and turning it over would violate the children’s privacy, the nonprofits have said. Some of the nonprofits — Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Ayuda, and Kids in Need of Defense — said in June that HHS and Homeland Security Investigations officers tried to access financial records relating to the minor clients at their Washington, D.C.-area offices.
“They continue to insist that the only way that they will pay for the work already completed for the representation of children is if we betray our legal ethics and the confidences of children who we are representing,” Shaina Aber, executive director at Acacia, said during a press conference last week. “Obviously, that’s not tenable.”
Since January 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested thousands of unaccompanied minors and their sponsors, who are usually family members, based on leads from ORR, Reuters reported.
In June, ORR had 1,796 children in its custody, who on average are spending 194 days in the government’s care, according to the department’s most recent data. Children spent longer in ORR custody in the last fiscal year than during the first Trump administration.
HHS did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment about how the unaccompanied minors would receive legal services once the Acacia contract ends.
But the Trump administration has asked the Texas Attorney General’s office and Texas Indigent Defense Commission for help representing the kids, The Texas Tribune reported. The Department of Defense has also prepared to task military lawyers for the job, Bloomberg reported.
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