Underage Immigrants Traveling Alone to the U.S. Need Legal Support—but federal funding cuts are making lawyers harder to get
Tahirih Justice Center’s executive director Vanessa Wilkins stated
That work, though, is under threat: By September, the nonprofit says, it’ll run out of funds to represent clients like Ana. This spring, the federal government slashed funding to HHS’s Unaccompanied Minor Program, which provides legal representation to underage people with immigration claims—about 26,000 cases around the country. In Georgia alone, more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors were released to sponsors in 2024. The lawyers don’t just help facilitate asylum claims like Ana’s; they also help protect young people from trafficking and abuse.
“We’ve had to pause intakes for unaccompanied minors at the moment, until we can figure out what we can do to fund the work in the future,” said Vanessa Wilkins, Tahirih’s executive director.
