Trump administration rescinds order to halt legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children

Source: NBC News

Feb. 21, 2025, 2:57 PM EST


The Trump administration on Friday rescinded a stop-work order affecting federally funded legal services for unaccompanied migrant children. The Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit that has a federal contract to provide legal aid to unaccompanied migrant children, said in a statement to NBC News on Friday afternoon that it received notice that “it can immediately resume work providing representation and legal access services to unaccompanied children.”

“We welcome the news that the stop-work order on Acacia’s Unaccompanied Children Program has been lifted,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in the statement. “We will continue working alongside the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that these critical services upholding the basic due process rights of vulnerable children are fully restored and our partners in the legal field — legal lifelines safeguarding the rights and well-being of children seeking safety — can resume their work without future disruption or delay.”

The Department of the Interior sent a letter on Friday addressed to the center saying it may “resume all activities” related to its contract for providing legal aid for unaccompanied minors, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NBC News.

On Tuesday, the Interior Department had sent a stop-work order to the center, cutting off funding for “all activities” under Acacia’s federal contract to provide legal services for unaccompanied migrants younger than 18, according to the text of that letter obtained by NBC News earlier this week. The letter directed the center to “cease all services and the ordering of supplies” and to notify subcontractors that a stop-work order had been issued.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-administration-legal-aid-unaccompanied-migrant-children-rcna193230