More than 25,000 children lose previous legal protections, as federal contract ends
Approximately 26,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. are losing access to independent legal representation after the government allowed a contract with legal service providers to expire. The dispute stems from the government's demand for confidential attorney-client information, which legal groups refused to provide.
Why it matters
The loss of legal counsel significantly reduces the likelihood of migrant children successfully navigating the asylum process, raising major human rights and due process concerns.
An estimated 26,000 children who entered the U.S. without parents or guardians are expected to be left without independent legal representation as soon as Monday, according to lawyers who help represent them.
For more than two decades, the U.S. has been required by law to protect children who cross the border alone, because of fears that they could be easily exploited, abused or trafficked. After children cross the border unaccompanied, they are typically transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A network of nearly 100 legal groups helps provide children who arrive in ORR custody with legal services, funded by Congress.
But in November, ORR stopped paying for those legal services, after lawyers refused to provide the agency with confidential information it had requested about the children. The attorneys say that information is covered by attorney-client privilege.
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