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While New York-based organizations have not stopped representing the unaccompanied minors they already work with, they’re not sure how long they’ll be able to do so without funding.
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Recently, a 5-year-old migrant crossed the border and was placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency responsible for unaccompanied minors.
The child, who crossed without a parent or legal guardian, was released to a sponsor in New York and obtained court representation through Church World Service, one of nine organizations providing legal services to immigrant youth through federal funding.
The group’s government contract, however, was cancelled two weeks ago.
On March 21, the Trump administration instructed providers around the country to immediately cease services to more than 25,000 minors after it failed to renew over $200 million in federal grants, which expired on March 29. This was the Trump administration’s second attempt at defunding those services: In February, the federal government issued a stop-work order to halt legal aid for unaccompanied minors, but rescinded it a few days later.
ORR is a program office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency in charge of migrant children’s care, and which oversees the contract.
An ACF spokesperson said that ORR “continues to meet the legal requirements established by” the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which established the Department of Homeland Security, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which increased protections for victims and required screening of unaccompanied children for potential trafficking.
However, advocates say the end of the contract eliminates almost all of their services with unaccompanied children, and dismantles infrastructure and expertise built over decades. Since the news broke on March 21, providers and advocates have sounded the alarm, saying that infants, toddlers, and teenagers without lawyers are far more likely to be detained and deported.
The Acacia Center for Justice, which runs the Unaccompanied Children Program (UCP) through a network of organizations, said the latest order amounts to a near-total termination of services, including full legal representation, legal screenings, Spanish translation and interpretation, as well as reporting and other support.
“The only work that is allowed to continue is ‘know your rights’ presentations for young children because that is mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act,” said Madison Allman, Acacia’s communications manager, via email.
In New York alone, approximately 7,700 minors were served by the UCP in fiscal year 2024, said Sierra Kraft, executive director of the ICARE Coalition, an organization advocating to expand access to legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children in New York City.
UCP has about 1,800 open cases in New York State funded by the contract, most of them now at risk of losing representation. The termination directly impacts 191 staff members across nine legal service providers in New York, Kraft explained.
City Limits reached out to all providers in the state to ask about the impact of the cuts, and while organizations have not stopped representing the minors they already work with, they’re unsure of how long they can continue to do so without funding.
While attorneys have ethical obligations to the children they already represent and cannot withdraw from a case without a judge’s permission, the funding loss puts them in a tough position.
“The lawyers will face a series of increasingly difficult questions: how long can they afford to represent the kids for free? How will they balance their ethical duties to vulnerable children? They will risk their licenses if they fail to continue representing their child client’s interests without finding someone else who can represent them,” Allman explained. “They are now caught in an impossible situation that is entirely manufactured by this administration.”
Providers like the Empire Justice Center have already issued 30-day layoff notices to attorneys on contract, said Kristin Brown, president and CEO of the Empire Justice Center, a nonprofit that provides legal services to minors in ORR shelters or released to sponsors, or who have no family members in the country and are living in foster care.
Empire Justice Center’s Senior Attorney Robert Cisneros said the organization is currently representing between 290 and 310 cases of minors in removal proceedings before the immigration courts in New York’s lower Hudson Valley.
Unlike criminal cases, legal counsel is not guaranteed in immigration court. Attorneys said that despite being eligible for protections under U.S. law, unaccompanied minors are more likely to be deported without access to legal counsel.
According to Acacia, unaccompanied minors are seven times more likely to receive a favorable outcome in immigration court if they have a lawyer representing them.
These attorneys represent a range of cases, from the trauma and abuse of children to survivors of human trafficking. Just before the order, Cisneros said, they took a case of a teenager trafficked to the U.S. who’s now facing removal proceedings in New York.
“The government still tries to remove them,” Cisneros said. “They still try to deport them, so they still have to go to immigration court.”
Another organization providing legal services, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, has 265 cases involving unaccompanied minors in the Albany area.
“A large percentage of these minors are eligible and will receive legal status if they have an attorney who can help them negotiate the complex immigration court system,” said Jim Milstein, the organization’s Immigration Project director.
Another direct effect of the cut is that organizations can’t take on more cases. Right before a call with City Limits, Milstein was on the phone with a minor seeking help. “We haven’t officially accepted his representation, but I think we’re going to try and figure out how to do it,” he said.
And need is present throughout the state. Even before the contract was terminated, many providers were already at capacity. Attorneys at the Empire Justice Center said they are not taking any more cases, even though they have been contacted with more.
All providers who spoke with City Limits said they are urgently seeking funding sources to maintain these services. Safe Passage Project, for example, is also mobilizing pro bono attorneys to help bridge the representation gap, while other providers are working to transfer cases to other organizations with funded programs.
Providers also said they are seeking emergency funding and working with Congress, the Senate, and state and local lawmakers to try to fill the gap, but there are no concrete results to show yet.
State lawmakers have introduced two bills to fund legal representation in New York through the Access to Representation Act, which would provide attorneys to those who can’t afford it while facing deportation, and the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense, which would create multi-year funding for immigration legal service providers.
According to a recent Acacia poll, 61 percent of American adults felt that children facing the immigration system without a parent or guardian should be guaranteed access to legal support and services.
“The Unaccompanied Children Program is not just a lifeline—it is a moral obligation to protect immigrant children. Without this program, these children are left defenseless, jeopardizing their safety, well-being and future,” said Angela Fernández, executive director of Safe Passage Project, via email.
“We urge leaders and officials to take immediate action and reinstate the Unaccompanied Children Program to ensure that every child has the opportunity to be heard, supported, and safeguarded in their journey toward a better future,” Fernández added.
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