Congressional Democrats sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, urging him to rescind a new policy they say violates the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children and makes them vulnerable to deportation.
Under the policy, unaccompanied minors would be represented in court by HHS lawyers instead of independent attorneys, a change the lawmakers say creates a conflict of interest, given the administration’s desire to deport as many immigrants as possible and the health department’s role in detaining the children.
“The immigration judge works for the Trump administration. So does the prosecutor. Under your plan, so would the child’s lawyer. That is unacceptable,” wrote Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin (Ill.), Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey (Mass.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.).
As I reported earlier this month, HHS had quietly announced the creation of a new division, the Unaccompanied Alien Children Legal Representation Division, to perform this legal work. Kennedy’s agency also oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for placing kids in shelters after they cross the border alone and deciding when to release them to relatives in the United States.
Under President Trump, ORR is holding kids significantly longer than it had under Biden—about six months on average; it also is sharing information with ICE. “HHS holds these children in custody, decides where they live, and shares information about them and their families with immigration enforcement. HHS cannot also be their lawyer,” the lawmakers wrote.
Federal law gives unaccompanied minors a right to an attorney, and HHS’ own regulations stipulate they should receive a legal orientation from an independent provider. Historically, that’s been done by a network of experienced nonprofits, led most recently by the Acacia Center for Justice. But the Trump administration let the network’s contract expire over the summer. It then awarded the job to Burke Law Group, a small firm with far less experience in these matters, but greater ties to Trump: One of Burke’s co-founders served in the first Trump administration and one of its founding partners works for the second.
Facing backlash, Burke Law Group pulled out. Next, the contract went to Our Rescue, a nonprofit founded by a former ICE agent. A court put that deal on hold after the Acacia Center filed a protest against it. In the meantime, the administration gave a temporary contract to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, whose personnel, according to court filings, often sit silently in court and have only represented 12 children so far; by contrast, the nonprofit network had been representing more than 20,000.