Experts say conditions for migrant kids alone in U.S. will worsen as legal aid funding expires

A contract between the federal government and legal service providers representing immigrant children has come to an end.

Some 20,000 children alone in the U.S. receive legal aid through the contract — part of a federal program established by Congress almost two decades ago.

Now, groups part of the program in Arizona and elsewhere say the Trump administration is letting their contract expire, and millions of dollars worth of funding is still unpaid.

Bryan Chavez is a caseworker at a California-based group called ImmDef. He’s originally from Mexico and went through the same legal process himself after being separated from his mother at the border.

“Without legal representation I likely would not have obtained legal status, I likely would have been deported, and honestly, if I had been forced to return to Mexico, I likely would not be alive today,” he said during a call with reporters Friday.

Chavez says children are already spending much longer in government custody, and without attorneys that could get worse.

Nicholas Caneo is a pediatrician who works with immigrant children.

“Legal representation for unaccompanied children is not merely an administrative service, it’s really a health intervention. Many of these young people have already survived violence, separation, dangerous journeys and detention,” Caneo said.

The Acacia Center for Justice, the umbrella organization that doles out funding to the smaller groups, says the government has withheld the $65 million in funding and is demanding attorneys release case-sensitive information about the children that is protected by attorney-client privilege.

Health and Human Services — the federal agency that runs the program — did not respond to questions about the funding or the end of contract.