Trump 2.0 Attack on Unaccompanied Children's Legal Services

The Trump administration has created unprecedented challenges for humanitarian aid providers, particularly immigration organizations like RAICES. These challenges include decisions that have harmed children and families, significant budget cuts to legal services funding, and neglect of attorneys' ethical duties.

Facing extraordinary conditions since the administration began, providers were forced to make difficult choices. RAICES experienced an eight-figure funding shortfall, resulting from interruptions to federal subcontracts, including legal services funding for unaccompanied children, which necessitated a reduction in force.

Despite these obstacles, RAICES continues to offer direct legal services in major Texas metropolitan areas: San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston. We have also expanded our litigation capacity for a stronger national presence. Approximately 85% of our 140 staff members are dedicated to program-specific roles. No longer holding the subcontract for services to immigrant children in federal shelters, we have fully adjusted our operations to the new realities of immigration legal services.

We remain committed to upholding our professional, ethical, and moral obligations to clients and are taking action to protect clients from the harm inflicted by the Trump administration.

Your Questions, Answered

  • Funding for unaccompanied children’s legal services to RAICES was halted on March 21, 2025, following the government’s Termination for Convenience of its primary contract with Acacia Center for Justice, necessitating the wind-down of direct representation cases.

  • Yes, RAICES entered into an Extension and Amendment Agreement with Acacia on April 16, 2025, to provide rights presentations in children’s shelters from March 30, 2025, through September 29, 2025. This agreement was later terminated by Acacia, effective August 1, 2025.

  • RAICES established and implemented internal guidelines for the ethical wind-down of unaccompanied children's cases, based on extensive research and advisement from bodies including the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, American Bar Association, and American Immigration Lawyers Association, as well as private counsel.

  • Yes, employees impacted by the reduction in force received over 60 days' notice and severance packages that included up to seven weeks of pay, PTO payouts (up to 140 hours), and three months of health insurance coverage, exceeding the CBA minimum.

  • Yes, as a result of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on April 1, 2025, and a preliminary injunction on April 29, 2025, from Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin. However, the subsequent proposed agreements had terms that RAICES found untenable.

  • On May 7, 2025, RAICES received a proposed “Extension and Amendment Agreement” from Acacia, covering March 30, 2025, through September 29, 2025, for unaccompanied children’s legal services (intakes and direct representation). RAICES declined due to concerns including the threat of future stop work orders or terminations without notice, the need to actively acquire new clients under that threat, the curtailment of litigation capacity against the administration, and well-founded skepticism about the administration's intentions.

  • No. RAICES was never presented with an agreement valued at $19.5 million in government funding subcontracted by Acacia. Any such claim is a misrepresentation of the facts.