Estrella del Paso’s Unaccompanied Children’s Program Closes After Trump Administration Withholds nearly $1 million in Funds For Work Already Completed

El Paso, TX – Today, Friday, July 31, 2026, Estrella del Paso shut down its Unaccompanied Children’s Program. Our contract to provide services to unaccompanied children expires tonight, and the contract has not been extended. The closure of this program has forced Estrella del Paso to let go of 13 employees.

For nearly two decades, Congress has funded legal representation for Unaccompanied Children. Many of these children are survivors of trafficking, violence, and persecution and they have a legal right to legal services and legal representation under U.S. law. Without a lawyer, children win the right to stay less than 1% of the time.

The administration is demanding confidential information it has no legal right to and is withholding $65 million in payments for legal services already provided by a network of more than 90 legal service providers. This is work Congress appropriated funds for, and the network was contracted to — and did — perform. The administration currently owes Estrella del Paso nearly $1 million for services that have already been provided. That number will increase after invoices are submitted for work completed during the month of July. Without payment from the federal government, Estrella del Paso does not have the financial capacity to continue operating the Unaccompanied Children’s Program.

Estrella del Paso currently represents 243 unaccompanied migrant children. Our attorneys have an ethical and legal obligation to continue representing the children, despite the government withholding payment for these services.

“Over the course of 20 years, this network of legal service providers has developed a unique level of expertise working with children who have experienced trauma,” said Melissa M. Lopez, Estrella del Paso Executive Director. “We have spent 20 years building this institutional knowledge that we are going to lose on Friday. There is no replacing the organizations providing these services. We know what happens to children that go to court without an attorney. In one word, it is deportation. The government is trying to eliminate our work and this program because they know that without attorneys, children will be deported.”

This issue is not about paperwork or even non-payment of the bills this administration owes. It’s about more than 20,000 vulnerable immigrant children who deserve to have someone in their corner and the federal government’s choice to leave them to face the immigration system alone.

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