Texas Tribune reveals Trump administration asked Texas criminal-defense commission to take over immigrant children's deportation cases

The Texas Tribune reported on July 3, 2026 that in mid-June 2026, the executive director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, Scott Ehlers, received a request from top officials working with the Trump administration asking his agency to take over legal representation of unaccompanied immigrant children in their deportation cases. The first calls came from lieutenants in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, followed by James McHenry, the U.S. Department of Justice's chief administrative hearing officer. Ehlers told the officials he did not believe immigration defense for children fell within his commission's mandate, which the Texas Legislature created more than a decade ago solely for criminal defense. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that officials with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of Health and Human Services, had sought the Texas Attorney General's assistance and then recommended the state commission, and that DOJ "was asked to look into the legality" of the arrangement.

The outreach came as the administration moved on several fronts to unwind the legal protections Congress established for children who cross the border alone. A 2000 bipartisan law requires the government to fund legal services for those children, on the understanding that they should not represent themselves in immigration court. The administration is litigating to end that mandated representation, has failed to pay providers, and — as the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights documented on June 12, 2026 — sent Homeland Security Investigations and HHS agents unannounced to the offices of Amica, Ayuda, and Kids in Need of Defense seeking client records without any warrant. The temporary contract overseen by the Acacia Center for Justice is set to expire July 31, and the administration has not provided the legally required transition notice for the more than 20,000 children currently represented.

Advocates said the request to Texas fit a broader effort to consolidate unaccompanied children in a border state aligned with the administration, where cases are heard by the Fifth Circuit, asylum-denial rates are higher, and state oversight of child-care facilities has been curtailed — conditions that make rapid deportation easier. Commission board members and Texas legislators who wrote the state's indigent-defense law said the request was outside its purpose and could not be undertaken without action by the Legislature.

Updates

2026-07-31 — Acacia contract lapsed with $65 million owed since December [3, 4, 5]

The temporary federal contract funding legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, held by the Acacia Center for Justice, expired July 31, 2026, as anticipated. The government withheld roughly $65 million in payments to Acacia since December 2025, according to the organization and subsequent reporting; current and former federal prosecutors denounced the administration for fast-tracking deportation of children as the contract lapsed.