Three organizations that provide legal assistance to children who entered the United States without a parent or guardian said Friday that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services attempted to gain access to their offices in the Washington, D.C., area, describing the efforts as an intimidation campaign against legal services providers.
Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Ayuda, and Kids in Need of Defense each said in separate news releases Friday that agents from Homeland Security Investigations, part of ICE, and the HHS Office of the Inspector General tried to enter their offices. The groups said the actions were part of a broader effort targeting the legal aid network for migrant children.
Because of the special vulnerability of children, the U.S. government has historically provided legal assistance to youth who came to the country alone after crossing the border without a parent or guardian. The second Trump administration has attempted to cut funding to the network of non-governmental organizations that deliver that legal help.
In recent months, MSI reported that an internal ICE memo authorized agents to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant, relying instead on administrative warrants that legal experts said do not carry the same authority. Advocates and attorneys for unaccompanied children have separately sought to halt CBP policies they said pressured children to self-deport.
Wendy Young, the executive director of Kids in Need of Defense — known as KIND — said in a statement that the attempted office visits appeared designed to interfere with the organization’s ability to represent children, and that the government was trying to intimidate lawyers representing children in immigration proceedings.
Michael Lukens, executive director of Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said in a statement that the agency’s actions threatened the legal representation of vulnerable children.
Paula Fitzgerald, executive director of Ayuda, said in a statement that the group was alarmed by the attempted access and characterized it as part of a pattern of actions by the administration that put immigrant children at risk.
The three organizations each called on federal officials to ensure that legal services providers can operate without interference, and the groups said they were evaluating their legal options in response to the attempted entries.