In 2019, she came here at 16, alone. Within weeks, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement released her to a family member in New York, and I was assigned her case. By 2021, she had a green card.

That is what this work can and should look like. Not anymore.

Earlier this month, I returned to immigration court for the first time since the federal contract funding legal representation for more than 20,000 unaccompanied children expired on July 31.

Before I walked in, I read that the Trump administration had awarded a $150 million contract to represent detained children to a law firm with no apparent background in immigration law. (After a public outcry, the firm ultimately withdrew from consideration.) The administration also awarded a contract to Our Rescue “to ensure continuity of legal services for unaccompanied alien children.” Our Rescue has faced intense scrutiny over a range of troubling issues.

These decisions........

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