Legal service providers for migrant children say their contract with U.S. government is set to end

Legal groups representing immigrant children alone in the U.S. say they’re nearing the end of a government contract to do their work — and there’s no plan in place for continued funding.

A congressionally funded program established nearly two decades ago provides legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children. Shaina Aber is the executive director with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides those legal services through a network of subcontractors — like Arizona’s Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

She says the contract to do that work is expiring at the end of this month, and the government has already withheld more than $65 million in funding since December.

“Refusing to reimburse the Acacia Center for Justice, and our network of nearly 100 legal service providers for work we have already completed, representing unaccompanied children and helping unrepresented children to navigate their complex proceedings,” she said.

Aber says several groups have already been forced to do staff layoffs and furloughs because of the funding lapse. Last month, one of the largest subcontractors — Kids In Need of Defense, or KIND — said it plans to end its role amid more than $20 million in overdue payments.

A federal court blocked the Trump administration from cancelling the program last year, but its future has remained uncertain. Earlier this month, aid groups returned to court to ask a federal district judge to make the Trump administration pay for the legal services they performed for some 20,000 children since January.

In court filings, government attorneys say some of the funding is being withheld because legal groups aren't providing information requested about their services. The groups say the information being asked of them is protected by attorney-client privilege.

Elizabeth Young, a former regional deputy chief immigration judge, says children aren’t equipped to represent themselves in court.

“Without a lawyer, children win the right to stay in the country less than 10% of the time, immigration judges are nearly 100 times less likely to grant relief to a child without counsel,” Young said during a press call this week.

The legal groups say thousands of children could be left without counsel when the contract expires July 31.

Health and Human Services, the agency that runs government shelters for immigrant children, did not respond to questions about the end of the legal services contract or the money attorneys say has been withheld.