Trump administration cuts off access to legal services for unaccompanied migrant children

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The Trump administration ordered legal service providers working with unaccompanied migrant children to stop their work, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

The move is the latest in a string of actions stripping key resources from immigrants in the United States – this time, targeting children and teenagers who crossed the southern border without their parents.

The Department of Interior sent the order, dated Tuesday, to the Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit that says it assists nearly 26,000 children in and released from Office of Refugee Resettlement custody.

ORR, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department, is charged with the care of unaccompanied migrant children.

“The administration’s decision to suspend this program undermines due process, disproportionately impacts vulnerable children, and puts children who have already experienced severe trauma at risk for further harm or exploitation,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justices, said in a statement.

The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, which provides “Know Your Rights” presentations for children in government custody as well as other legal services, also condemned the move.

“Without the services the Florence Project provides through the Unaccompanied Children Program, children, no matter their age, will be forced to represent themselves in immigration court alone. This is an unprecedented attack on immigrant children,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, Florence Project deputy director, in a statement.

The stop-work order is unlikely to affect children who are already represented, but the abrupt cutting off of funding could force groups to downsize or close entirely.

Days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Department similarly told legal service providers to stop work intended to help support immigrants, stripping away critical access for people in detention trying to navigate the tangled US immigration system. That order was later rescinded without explanation.