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As part of its relentless project of mass deportation, the Trump administration has taken particularly brutal aim at the most vulnerable population of immigrants: children. If the federal government has its way, about 20,000 unaccompanied minors will soon face immigration court hearings without legal representation.

For decades, Congress has allocated funding for unaccompanied immigrant minors via the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), as the result of the Flores Settlement, struck after a 1993 Supreme Court decision. That agreement — established in 1997 and still in effect — made it the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that unaccompanied children arriving in the U.S. are treated with a certain baseline of care.

The agreement was cemented under Republican President George W. Bush, who signed a 2008 bipartisan anti-trafficking bill into law and directed the federal government to ensure the care and safety of unaccompanied migrant children, including funding their legal representation.

During his first term, President Donald Trump aggressively targeted this and several other federal programs supporting unaccompanied migrant kids. When Trump took office for a second time in early 2025, he resumed those attacks by ending a contract with Acacia Center for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization that subcontracts with hundreds of legal advocates to represent children in immigration courts.

“The Trump administration really, from day one, tried to terminate this contract and the ability of children to have their legal rights understood, evaluated, and honored,” said Shaina Aber, Acacia’s executive director, in an interview. She added, “We still don’t have confirmation on what is going to be the government’s plan [going forward] for ensuring that children have the ability to meaningfully participate in their process and have their rights vindicated.”

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While the contract termination is being challenged in court, ORR last December refused to reimburse Acacia for services already rendered. This means the organization is more than six months in arrears, unable to pay its subcontractors. “They come up with novel excuses every week for why they are not paying us,” said Aber.

Then, in July 2026, ORR announced it would not pay Acacia until the organization turned over confidential and sensitive data about its clients. According to NBC news, “ORR said it offered Acacia the opportunity to extend the contract if Acacia provides data about its clients and bills ORR when it submits applications for immigration relief.” This undermines the most........

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