How Republicans Are Willfully Endangering Immigrant Kids

Trudy Taylor Smith is senior administrator of policy and advocacy with Children’s Defense Fund-Texas.

I want you to imagine a toddler appearing in court to face off against a government-trained attorney trying to deport them. Think of their terror as they take their seat in the courtroom, legs swinging because they’re not long enough to reach the floor. Consider the plight of a teenage survivor of sexual violence, unable to speak English, or too traumatized to mention key facts about the experiences that could determine the outcome of their case.  

No state in America is home to more unaccompanied immigrant children than Texas. In Fiscal Year 2024 alone, over 13,000 children were released to sponsors across our state. Every day, many of these children face the kinds of traumatizing situations described above. Their lives hang in the balance, but, with no legal representation, they often have no one to defend their rights or ensure a fair process. 

Unfortunately, our representatives in Congress have backed the federal government’s efforts to ensure that the vast majority of unaccompanied immigrant children continue to face a harrowing and unfair process as they fight for their futures. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have put forward proposals to allocate billions of dollars toward expanded immigration enforcement while blocking funding for legal representation of unaccompanied children targeted for detention or deportation. 

Despite warnings from advocates like me about the dire consequences for children, Republicans in Congress have continued to push forward policies that leave unaccompanied children without legal counsel or other services to ensure their safety. Congressional Republicans have also sought to dismantle core legal protections for detained immigrant children, fund strip searches of children as young as 12 years old by law enforcement officers, allow indefinite detention, and impose new barriers to children’s release. 

Our Congressional representatives’ indifference to children’s health and safety compounds the harm of other similarly callous attacks on immigrant children.

In March, the federal government canceled a $200 million contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, a nonprofit whose national affiliate network provided legal representation to 26,000 unaccompanied children. That decision left many children with no lawyer to represent them and no way to effectively engage in the legal process.

In early April, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order compelling the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to restore legal aid funding for two weeks, but officials never complied. Instead, through “expedited docketing,” the federal government sped up timelines for children’s immigration cases as it simultaneously slashed their access to legal counsel, forcing more children to face immigration court dates without a lawyer.

Then, in May, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to end a longstanding settlement agreement that protects detained immigrant children by requiring the federal government to provide safe and sanitary conditions for them and setting limits on how long children can be held in detention. Child advocates have opposed that move, and litigation is ongoing.

Republican lawmakers often claim they want to protect children, but their policy decisions tell a different story. By cutting off access to counsel and seeking to reduce or eliminate existing legal protections, lawmakers aren’t just failing children, they’re willfully endangering them. Such cruelty is especially stark considering the circumstances of the children they affect. 

Children who arrive in our country without a parent or guardian often make the dangerous journey here to escape political instability, gang violence, persecution, abuse, or trafficking. Yet unaccompanied children frequently find themselves at risk of further exploitation or abuse after they arrive in the U.S. without a trusted adult to look out for their interests.  

We youth advocates know that children’s rights attorneys are vital to the children they serve. They help children understand the immigration court process, sometimes using puppets or dolls to prepare young children for hearings. They identify the forms of relief that children are entitled to, gather evidence to support their claims, and make sure children know they can tell immigration judges the painful parts of their stories that are central to their cases. 

Outside the courtroom, these attorneys also protect children from trafficking, exploitation, and abuse by building relationships of trust that encourage them to speak up if they experience harm. 

Without a lawyer by their side, unaccompanied immigrant children may be deported to a country where they face grave danger, even though they are entitled to legal protections that would allow them to remain here. 

The data is clear that having an attorney makes a huge difference in whether or not children receive the protection they need. From Fiscal Year 2005 to 2017, only 64 percent of unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings were ever represented by a lawyer, but those who are represented are over seven times more likely than unrepresented children to receive an outcome allowing them to stay in the United States.

Despite that, Republican lawmakers continue to promote measures that will make it increasingly difficult for the tens of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children in our state to access the legal help they need.  

All children deserve a childhood marked by safety, care, and opportunities to play and learn. As adults, we have a collective responsibility to protect all children in Texas and ensure they have access to the resources they need to thrive. This is why I continue to fight for their rights as a child advocate.

What does it say about us as a society when we tolerate—or even support—policies that traumatize, neglect, and abuse children? How much cruelty will we inflict—or passively allow our nation’s leaders, laws, and institutions to inflict on our behalf—on children? And how long can we claim to care about justice, compassion, fairness, or protecting human life while we sit back and watch this unfold?  

Whether we allow this institutional violence to continue out of sheer apathy or because we refuse to recognize the humanity of children born outside our country, our complicity is a mirror reflecting back to us our own diminished humanity. We cannot abandon these children without abandoning our values. As Texans, and as Americans, it’s time for us to ask ourselves who we really are and who we want to be.   

Now, I urge all of us to stand together against targeted attacks on some of the most marginalized children in Texas. We must oppose heartless policies that trample children’s rights and make a mockery of due process and the rule of law. We must refuse to allow trafficked and traumatized children to be placed back in harm’s way. Every unaccompanied immigrant child deserves to have a lawyer by their side and to be protected rather than endangered by our nation’s laws. If we want to live up to our own ideals, then now is the time to hold our leaders accountable for delivering policies that make this a reality.

Now is the moment for all Texans to say, “Not on our watch.”