San Francisco Frontiers - Without lawyers, migrant children face deportation from the US

The judge instructs the baby and his mother, age 17, to apply for asylum. But the teenager can barely focus on what he is saying.

Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of a group that provides legal support for unaccompanied minors, described this scene, which she witnessed in August.

"This child is being expected to file her own application, also figure out how to file things for her one-year-old baby, while living through the distress of being a detained young mother," Avila-Cimpeanu told AFP.

President Donald Trump's administration has choked off funding for organizations that have years of experience assisting unaccompanied minors, bringing in substitutes that are under-equipped and unqualified, advocates say.

"We are gravely concerned that ORR would entrust a vulnerable population with firms so plainly unqualified for the task," Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the Deportment of Health and Human Services this week.

ORR is the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency traditionally tasked with the care of unaccompanied minor migrants.

The category describes children who arrive in the United States without an adult, or whose parents were detained by immigration agents and are in shelters or government custody.

- 'Attack on children' -

Since he returned to the White House for his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump has a mounted an aggressive and sometimes violent operation to deport undocumented immigrants from the United States.

Last year the administration tried to cut off funding that ORR used to support a national network of organizations that have for years provided legal services to unaccompanied migrant minors.

Following a lawsuit, the measure was blocked by a federal judge who ordered that the services, which were mandated by a 2008 law, be maintained.

Months later, the government stopped making payments, and in July 2026, it allowed a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice -- which managed a network of about 100 organizations -- to expire.

Avila-Cimpeanu told AFP that in late 2025 that the government made funding contingent on the release of confidential information about some 20,000 children represented by the network -- "and we did not do so."

The government then announced plans to hand the cases over to the Burke Law Group, run by a former Trump administration official, but that firm withdrew its bid.

It then planned to deploy Our Rescue, an organization founded by a controversial anti-trafficking activist and led by a former investigator for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The contract was put on hold following questions raised in Congress, amid a review of federal funds allocated for this purpose.

"Children's legal protections should never be the currency Of political patronage," Democratic lawmakers said in their letter.

Avila-Cimpeanu says the administration is trying to complicate the defense of minors "in order to get to their goal of deporting as many children as quickly as possible."

"I have been doing this work for 10 years, and this is the worst time that I've ever seen with regard to the government's concerted attack on children," she said.

- Babies in court -

She said it is common for unaccompanied minors to appear in immigration courts. That is why a lawyer who understands the issue -- and even speaks the child's language if it is not English -- is necessary.

Avila-Cimpeanu recalled a case in 2018 when her organization was in court on behalf of a baby just months old.

"We had to say: this baby denies the allegations. This baby would like voluntary departure.

"It's ridiculous that children have to go through this process as if they were adults, but it is part of the proceeding."

This week, CNN reported that 25 migrant children, several without a lawyer, had a hearing in a Texas court.

In a statement to AFP, ORR said that in August it provided funding through the end of the year for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) to appear at immigration hearings.

"USCRI is appearing at 100 percent of the hearings and has expanded to provide legal orientation, legal consultations and direct representation," it said.

Bilal Askaryar, a spokesman for Acacia, explained that USCRI is a small organization with about 50 attorneys, compared to the 800 in Acacia’s network.

"This isn't about a contract for us. This isn't about a dispute between an organization and the government. This is about 20,000 children who came to the United States seeking safety," he said.

D.Robinson--SFF