U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) warned on Tuesday that “the Trump administration is poised to let a contract providing legal services to unaccompanied children expire” on Friday, July 31. According to Goldman, “More than 20,000 young children are going to be forced to navigate the extraordinarily complex American immigration system completely alone. Many of them will be continue [sic] in gov’t custody for long periods of time, and many will be sent back to the dangerous circumstances they are trying to flee.”
Goldman added: “I’m asking all of my Republican colleagues, and the senior officials in the Trump administration: let’s end this madness. Pay the orgs helping these kids, renew the contract, and quit playing games with the lives of the most vulnerable.”
This Friday, July 31st, the Trump administration is poised to let a contract providing legal services to unaccompanied children expire.
More than 20,000 young children are going to be forced to navigate the extraordinarily complex American immigration system completely alone.… pic.twitter.com/YbrdkSKEIr
— Rep. Dan Goldman (@RepDanGoldman) July 28, 2026
Earlier this month, U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX) sent a letter to Trump’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Acting Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Angie Salazar voicing concern that ORR may be preparing to relocate those 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors to the State of Texas, “potentially to speed up their removals.”
[NOTE: Escobar wrote that one of the organizations with a federal contract to provide such legal services, Acacia Center for Justice, said that “the administration has yet to provide guidance on how ongoing cases will be handled or transferred once the contract ends” on Friday.]
Estrella del Paso has been a lifeline for immigrant families in our community, providing the legal support that makes our justice system fairer and more accessible. https://t.co/dTrhnYGmmd
— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) July 7, 2026
On Tuesday, the nonprofit law firm Americans for Immigrant Justice reported: “HHS continues to withhold more than $65 million in bipartisan funding already appropriated by Congress for these services. Since January 2026, legal providers, including the Children’s Legal Program at Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice), have worked without these funds. Those contracts fund Acacia Center for Justice’s nationwide network of more than 100 legal service providers, which includes AI Justice.”
[NOTE: The Washington Post reported in June: “The Trump administration is expanding its probe into what happened to the record number of migrant children who crossed the southern border without their parents during the Biden era, dispatching investigators to nonprofit organizations, prosecuting alleged smugglers and requesting help from the U.S. military.” Several nonprofit legal organizations told the Post that federal agents in plain clothes showed up at their offices without warrants or subpoenas and requested financial records.]