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Trump administration reverses on order for attorneys of unaccompanied minors to stop work

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas
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https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-child-s-hand-1250452/

The Trump administration rescinded an order Friday for attorneys representing unaccompanied minors seeking asylum to stop working.

The Acacia Center for Justice — the prime contract holder for unaccompanied minors' attorneys — was notified it could get back to work.

It is an about-face from the Tuesday order that affected 26,000 children, some as young as just a few months old, that advocates said left already vulnerable children in peril.

"I honestly burst into tears,” said Shaina Aber, CEO of Acacia Center for Justice. “I have two young kids. I have elementary school-age boys, and I've been up at night for the last 48 hours just thinking about kids, kids arriving in court without lawyers.”

For more than 15 years legal services have been provided to minor children who arrived in the United States without parents, many having suffered trauma and trafficking. The decision by the Trump administration without warning to stop payment to attorneys helping children flew in the face of years of bi-partisan agreement on the issue, said Aber when the order came down.

Texas and its southern border play an outsized role in unaccompanied minor children crossing into the country. More than 15,000 children were given legal services in fiscal 2024, according to the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP). More than 5,000 cases were active when ordered to stop working.

Despite the order, many attorneys expected to continue to represent their client children for free.

“We were planning to continue the work. Of course, we need funding for that work, and you can only use your reserves for so long,” said Alexa Sendukas, managing attorney for GHIRP.

A key deadline for unaccompanied minors occurs Monday, as asylum seekers attempt to become class members in a settlement with the federal government over a 2019 federal court case called J.O.P. vs the Department of Homeland Security. The order to stop work came down as many attorneys were rushing to get the paperwork in to further protect clients for deportation hearings.

“There’s still a big deadline. If anything, it was a cruel prank to pull this stuff this week,” said Jonathan Ryan, a San Antonio-based immigration attorney.

Friday’s announcement about returning funding avoids some tough conversations at least temporarily.

Even with the rescission, the order continues to send shockwaves through the immigrant and refugee services arenas, which has already started adjusting for a hard-right, anti-immigrant administration. Service providers like RAICES and Catholic Charities have laid off hundreds across Texas in the past month, as money dries up to provide the services.

The contract was up for renewal at the end of next month, and Aber won't speculate on what the current administration may do.

But she hopes the groundswell of support she witnessed from the community and Congress sent a message. She estimated that 15,000 letters of support were sent to members of Congress in just a few days asking for the funding to continue.

"Our hope is that this rescission of the stop work order represents the continued commitment from bipartisan supporters throughout the country that children should be treated with dignity," said Aber "That their rights should be protected, that their due process rights should not be jettisoned on a whim or on the backs of political aspirations."

Copyright 2025 Texas Public Radio

Paul Flahive