The United States Department of Defense is encouraging its retired or soon-to-retire military lawyers to apply to replace the work of about 100 organizations that have represented thousands of migrant minors for years and from whom the federal government withdrew funds to continue that work.
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A Pentagon official explained to EL PAÍS that they are supporting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the recruitment process of new lawyers.
“The War Department [as the Trump Government renamed the Department of Defense] provided information about available opportunities to recently retired or soon-to-retire War Department lawyers, encouraging them to represent unaccompanied minors under HHS custody,” the email reads.
Although consulted, they did not specify the area of expertise these military lawyers have. A review of the Army’s page on the expertise of defenders serving the War Department mainly includes military and fiscal justice issues, as well as labor, environmental counseling, and national security. They are also prepared in relation to civil litigation, which allows them to represent the Government alongside the Department of Justice in administrative and federal courts in cases affecting the Army.
Shaina Aber, executive director of Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit organization that received government funds and allocated them to nearly 100 institutions dedicated to defending minors until they were denied, told EL PAÍS that unaccompanied minors “must continue to be represented by independent lawyers (…) specialized in children’s immigration law, in the complexities of our immigration system, and who know how to work with minors, especially those who have experienced some traumatic situation.”
The organization asserts that Congress must ensure that these minors ―who arrived alone in the United States, without their parents or legal representatives― can have access to independent defense.
Unlike criminal courts, immigration courts do not have the duty to guarantee the representation of a lawyer, not even to minors. However, organizations have denounced that due process cannot be spoken of if children and adolescents do not understand the system they face, the penalties, the terms used in courts, and their consequences.
Where the funds will go
The urgency of the HHS to recruit lawyers comes from a decision by the Government itself. Since July 31, thousands of migrant minors in the US, from babies to teenagers, were at risk of losing the assistance of lawyers who represented them for years in immigration courts. That day, the contracts that had been funded since 2003 by the HHS to support a national network of 100 organizations providing legal services to unaccompanied children (who arrived in the United States without their parents or legal representatives) or who are in immigration custody expired.
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The HHS previously responded to EL PAÍS that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR, in charge of the care of minors) “continues to fully comply with legal and regulatory obligations, and does not act in any way that could discourage a child from seeking appropriate legal relief.” It added that the ORR offered Acacia Center for Justice the opportunity to receive a temporary contract based on certain requirements, such as providing them with the data of the children they represented and sending them the expense invoice when submitting asylum applications. “Acacia refused to accept this temporary contract,” the agency specified.
Aber said in a previous interview that providing confidential information to justify their invoices was unethical and represented a “betrayal” of the children.
When the Government withdrew funds from the organizations, an already existing crisis among organizations dedicated to legally supporting migrant minors worsened: in November 2025, the HHS had already withheld more than 65 million dollars previously approved by congressmen from both parties. Without that money, organizations began to be forced to reject new clients or simply reduce ―or close― their operations.
Since then, it has become known that the federal government has tried to reach representation agreements with several companies that, according to a letter denounced by Democratic congressmen Robert García (representative and member of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee) and Ron Wyden (senator and member of the Senate Finance Committee), have “strong ties” with the Donald Trump administration.
The first known company was Burke Law Group, based in Houston. On August 11, the firm stated on its social media account X that they had decided not to apply for a $150 million contract to defend unaccompanied minors.
The congressmen claim that the federal government then contacted Our Rescue, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis that presents itself as dedicated to handling cases of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. In their letter, they denounce that it was founded by Tim Ballard, a former agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “who resigned from the organization in 2023 following allegations of sexual assault and harassment by female employees.”
The director of Acacia raises the concern of legal defense organizations regarding the hiring of these companies that seem to have little experience in immigration law. And she adds that at times they notice how the federal government “accelerates these minors’ cases toward deportation at an unprecedented pace.”
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