This is part of a three-part series. The first part, published in March, 2026, focused on detained children, this part covers weakening legal protections for minors, and the final part will examine mass deportation’s impact on children not directly involved in the legal system.
In 2002, a bipartisan bill mandated legal services be provided to unaccompanied immigrant minors, intended to be supplied by qualified legal representatives and overseen by unbiased judges.
Despite that Act, Jonathan K. Ross, a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney recently argued that immigrant children do not have a right to government-funded legal services.
Early in Trump’s second term, the federal government restricted legal aid funding for unaccompanied minors. In July 2026, it ended its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, a network of nearly 100 organizations that counseled over 20,000 children. Acacia and its providers are pursuing court action regarding $65 million in unpaid services rendered since November 2025.
The Acacia Network was replaced by three groups: The Burke Law Group (a Texas firm with minimal immigration experience and Trump ties), Our Rescue (focused on sex trafficking sting operations), and the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Combined, they fall far short of the 800 attorneys and thousands of support staff of the previous network.
Ties are also growing between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an agency designed to support unaccompanied children and operate independently of enforcement. At the start of his second term, Trump signed an executive order increasing information sharing between ORR and DHS, granting some enforcement officers full access to sensitive database files. Staffing at ORR’s ombudsman office was reduced. The head of ORR, Angie Salazar, is an ICE veteran.
“Congress set up a system to protect migrant children, in part by giving them an agency that isn’t part of immigration enforcement,” said Scott Shuchart, former DHS and ICE officer under both Trump and Biden. “[The administration] is trying to use the protective arrangement as a bludgeon to hurt the kids and the adults who are willing to step forward to take care of them.”
ICE hired defense contractor MVM and engaged local law enforcement for “welfare checks” to locate unaccompanied undocumented children staying with sponsors. Officials claim this ensures child safety through further vetting. Advocates fear the tracking aims to collect data on sponsors and minors to facilitate detention and deportation.
JUDGES
In the past seven months, the Trump Administration has fired or laid off more than 100 permanent immigration judges. In late August 2026, DOJ published a final rule that eliminated certain critical requirements to serve as temporary immigration judges. A week later, the Department of Defense approved 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary judges with renewable six-month terms.
Advocates warn using military lawyers with renewable terms blurs the separation between independent courts and executive influence, allowing the administration to keep only judges who align with its preferences. It may also violate the Posse Comitatus Act.
THE TEXAS LINK
The federal government recently closed at least 50 shelters in Democratic states like New York, relocating the children to Texas. The under-resourced Texas Indigent Defense Commission — which lacks immigration experience — was designated to represent them.
Former ORR Deputy Director Jonathan White called the recent effort a clear move to shift capacity and resources to Texas, an area friendlier to the Trump administration and closer to the border.
Texas has an average of four deportations flights daily, the most of any state in the US.
THE RESULTS
Immigration judges now issue over 10,000 monthly removal or voluntary departure orders for immigrant minors — unaccompanied or with relatives — nearly quadrupling the rate of Trump’s first term. Most unaccompanied minors removed last year lacked a U.S. criminal history.
Deportation orders in immigration court are being issued so rapidly that attorneys struggle to explain them to clients. During a three-hour morning session in April, New York Immigration Judge Jem Sponzo issued deportation orders for 25 minors appearing, virtually everyone on her docket. Several hearings lasted just a few minutes, with some children too young to comprehend the proceedings.
The legal dangers to immigrant children are clear.
