The Trump administration on Saturday ended a federal contract that provides legal representation to nearly 26,000 migrant children who entered the United States without a parent or guardian, a move immigration attorneys say will leave children vulnerable to rapid deportation.
The contract provided funding for attorneys to represent minors who are under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — at least 4000 of whom reside in California— in immigration court.
Many of these children did not read or speak in English, and some were too young to read or speak at all, according to Joel Frost-Tift, an immigration attorney with Public Counsel.
"It’s going to have a devastating effect on our clients," Frost-Tift said.
He said attorneys would continue to fulfil their ethical duty to assist with the children’s cases for now, but without new funding it was unclear how long they would be able to do so.
• Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the US, according to a Federal Register notice on Saturday.
The move, effective April 24, cuts short a two-year "parole" granted to the migrants under former President Joe Biden that allowed them to enter the country by air if they had US sponsors. — TCA/Reuters
