Senators Push HHS on Unaccompanied Children Lawyers

A group of senators is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to drop plans to replace independent lawyers for unaccompanied immigrant children with government lawyers employed by the department. Their letter is dated October 19 and was reported between October 19 and 21. It rests on protections in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).

The senators, including Tammy Duckworth, say children facing immigration proceedings need advocates who are independent of the department holding them in custody. Under the TVPRA, specifically 8 U.S.C. 1232(c)(5), the government has obligations regarding legal representation for children in federal care.

Who looks after these children

Children who arrive at the U.S. border alone go into the custody of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, which places them in shelters while their cases proceed. Without lawyers, children, some of them toddlers, have to face complex asylum and deportation proceedings by themselves. Advocates want the office to expand legal aid for these minors, not cut it back. They say legal help is the biggest factor in whether a child gets protection or is removed.

The current system funds nonprofit legal service providers to represent the children. The senators want it kept. Their letter argues that HHS lawyers would have a built-in conflict: working for the agency in charge of the children's detention and placement, they could not advocate for them the way independent counsel can.

Immigration Analytics, which reported the letter, says the dispute reflects wider tensions over how the administration handles the care and legal processing of migrant children.

The TVPRA

Since it was enacted, the TVPRA has governed how unaccompanied children are treated. It requires screening for trafficking victims and sets standards for care and placement. Legal aid advocates see independent counsel as a necessary companion to those protections.

Research consistently finds that children with lawyers are far more likely to win relief and far less likely to be ordered removed in absentia. For the senators, that makes in-house lawyers a threat to children's due process rights, not an administrative reshuffle.

Where HHS stands

According to the reports, the department has not publicly committed to changing course. HHS officials have previously argued that consolidating legal services could improve efficiency and oversight. The senators say that is incompatible with independent representation.

Thousands of unaccompanied children are in federal custody at any given time. Advocates say they will watch the department's response, and warn that any move to in-house counsel would quickly be challenged in court under the TVPRA. They also say Congress may act if HHS doesn't back down.