Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., sent a letter to the Trump administration seeking changes to a proposal that would erode legal services and protections afforded by federal law to unaccompanied children.
“Legal service providers work to prevent further abuse, trauma, neglect, and exploitation of children, by building relationships with the children through in-person consultations, tracking their cases closely, and advocating for the legal rights and best interests,” Wyden and Murray wrote. “The recently amended RFP creates new and even more concerning restrictions on legal access, requires legal service providers to report confidential information to the government, and eliminates funding for certain legal services. The amended contract fails to meet the government’s legal obligations to unaccompanied children and would materially harm unaccompanied children if effectuated. We urge you to remove these significant restrictions on legal access.”
The letter, sent to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., outlines how the proposed changes undermine legal services for unaccompanied minors by switching legal orientations from in-person to virtual, creating restrictions for legal representation, and delaying payments to legal service providers by months or years.
Congress reaffirmed and funded the government’s obligation to provide legal counsel to unaccompanied children on a bipartisan, bicameral basis in the recently-enacted fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill.
The letter calls on the Trump administration to revise the proposal so it will:
- Guarantee that legal services, including legal orientations, are provided in person absent extraordinary exigent circumstances, such as a pandemic or other widespread public emergency.
- Restore legal protections for children to the levels under the current contract.
- Ensure that children qualify for legal representation regardless of the geographic location of their sponsor or foster placement.
- Ensure children’s confidentiality is maintained, and prevent violations of attorney ethics and their licenses.
- Guarantee timely compensation for legal service providers’ billable services during the contract period.
The text of the letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.
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