Organizations that provide legal assistance to migrant children have filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Health and Human Services after the agency reduced funds to the program that provides legal representation to tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors.
According to the lawsuit filed on Thursday, some of the groups that received federal subsidies have had to stop facing new clients and “face the real threat of not being able to continue their continuous representations.”
Last week, groups that have collectively received more than $ 200 million in federal subsidies were told that the contract was partially terminated, terminating the financing of legal representation and for the recruitment of lawyers to represent migrant children.
Currently, 26,000 migrant children receive legal representation through financing.
The groups, which filed the lawsuit in the US District Court.
“As a consequence of the defendants who order the plaintiffs who stop providing direct legal services, many children not accompanied will never talk to a lawyer, they will never request immigration relief for those who are eligible, they will remain in dim status for longer and will not understand what is happening as they rush through adverse disposal procedures,” the groups said in the presentation.
HHS officials did not respond to a request for comments from ABC News.
Migrant children expect attention to the Mexican refugee commission, after CBP cancellation, one of the United States in the United States, in Tapachula, Mexico, January 27, 2025.
José Torres/Anadolu through Getty Images
The groups added that the cuts in the financing will make immigration judges spend more time in cases for unaccompanied children that appear in court without a lawyer “at a time when the Immigration Court portfolio is already at its highest point.”
“The actions of the defendants will also cause chaos throughout the legal immigration system and are particularly harmful because they arrive at a time when the Government is restoring the expedition issue for elimination cases for unaccompanied children,” the groups said.
In a statement, Sam Hsieh, lawyer of the Amica Center, one of the groups that represents migrant children, described the decision to finish the programs “the most shameless attack against immigrant children from family separation.”
“The Trump administration’s decision to terminate these national legal service programs raises a significant threat to the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children already vulnerable,” said Hsieh. “Many of these children are eligible for immigration relief, but they can’t look for it significantly without a lawyer.”
