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MIAMI: Days after telling legal groups who help migrant children who arrive in America alone — some so young they are in diapers or their feet dangle from their chairs in court — that they must stop their work, the federal government Friday reversed itself.
The Trump administration told the groups that they can resume providing legal services to tens of thousands of unaccompanied children. The Acacia Center for Justice said that they received notice from the government of the reversal.
The notice came after the government on Tuesday suspended the program that provides legal representation to children who have arrived in the United States across the border with Mexico without parents or legal guardians. Several organizations that offer assistance to migrant children had criticized the measure and said at the time that the minors were at risk.
The $200 million contract allows Acacia and its subcontractors to provide legal representation to about 26,000 children and legal education to another 100,000 more.
The Friday notice from the United States Department of Interior obtained by The Associated Press does not explain the Trump administration decision to reinstate the program. I states that it “cancels” the order to halt legal services to migrant children.
“Acacia Center for Justice may resume all activities,” the short notice says.
Shaina Aber, executive director of Acacia said that they will continue to work with the government “to ensure that these critical services upholding the basic due process rights of vulnerable children are fully restored” and their partners can resume their work.
She warned, however, that this is a “critical moment to ensure that no child is forced to navigate” the immigration system alone.
Acacia said that in less than 48 hours, members of the public sent more than 15,000 letters to the Congress demanding the resumption of the program.
The program is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not. The deadline for this year’s decision is in March.
Michael Lukens, the executive director of Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, one of the subcontractors, said that despite the reversal he is still concerned.
“I’m very concerned because the attack on children is unprecedented and to even begin that is troubling,” Lukens said. He said if the stop-work order had remained in place, it would have left kids across the country without due process or protection.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive alone in the US The law said the government should facilitate legal representation for the children put into deportation proceedings, though it did not mandate every child have a lawyer.
Unaccompanied children under the age of 18 can request asylum, juvenile immigration status, or visas for victims of sexual exploitation.
Some of the organizations that provide legal representation said the decision to restore funds ensures the continuation of vital protections for vulnerable children.
“We urge the administration to stay this course by exercising the remaining year services under this existing contract,” said Wendy Young, president of the Kids in Need of Defense, one of the organizations that assists migrant children.

WASHINGTON: The top official in charge of carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda has been reassigned amid concerns that the deportation effort isn’t moving fast enough.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Friday that Caleb Vitello, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was “no longer in an administrative role, but is instead overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens, which is a major priority of the President and Secretary (Kristi) Noem.”
The statement made no mention of why Vitello, a career ICE official with more than two decades on the job, was reassigned or who his replacement will be. But White House officials have expressed frustration with the pace of deportations of people in the country illegally.
The decision comes a little over one month into the new administration, showing how important immigration and carrying out mass deportations are to the Trump administration.
ICE — specifically, its Enforcement and Removal Operations arm — is the key agency tasked with carrying out the Republican president’s pledge of mass deportations of people in the country illegally during his second term.
Last week Tom Homan, the White House border czar tasked with carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda across the federal government, said arrests inside the US — as opposed to people arrested as they’re crossing the border — are about three times higher than they were this time last year, under President Joe Biden. But he said it still wasn’t enough.
“I’m not satisfied,” Homan said. “We got to get more.”
At the time, Homan also said he had talked to ICE leadership about the number of people who had been released from immigration custody. From now on, he said, no one would be released without ICE leadership signing off.
“The number of releases was unacceptable,” Homan said, “and that’s been fixed.”
Homan spoke the same day that two top immigration enforcement officials were reassigned.
Vitello is a career ICE official, who most recently was the assistant director for firearms and tactical programs before being tapped as the acting director.
He’s also served on the National Security Council and held positions at ICE directly related to the agency’s enforcement operations.
ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed leader in years.