Pittsburgh is a temporary home to more than a dozen immigrant children who crossed into the United States without a parent or guardian, often fleeing unstable and dangerous situations in their home countries. Now, after the Trump administration canceled a contract to provide them with legal representation, lawyers are working without pay and children may eventually face the prospect of facing a judge, and possible deportation, alone.
“It’s ludicrous to think” that a child with no English skills could navigate the U.S. legal system alone, said Dana Gold, the COO of Jewish Family and Community Services [JFCS], a local agency that has been a subcontractor for the legal work. “If they are being trafficked, there’s no one investigating that. There’s nobody asking the questions, working to represent the children and keep them safe.”
More than 26,000 children fall into this category nationwide. After they cross the border, they are placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which places them in one of many shelters throughout the country — a few of which are in the Pittsburgh area.
Gold said JFCS served 650 children last year with legal advice, such as rights information and legal screenings. She said the group entered into formal representation with 50 children.
The funding cut, which was first reported March 21, comes as President Donald Trump pushes a broad effort to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Orlando Portela, a JFCS attorney who represents some of the children, said lawyers are now working without pay to see cases through, in part because the law requires it.
“The only one that could relieve you from representation is a judge,” Portela said. “You are responsible for the clients that you have accepted.”
Portela said many attorneys have stopped taking new cases, and he is only taking on clients that he has already met.
“As long as I already was in contact with the kids and the kid believed I would represent them … I feel a moral obligation to represent these kids,” Portela said.
After that, Portela said he doesn’t “know how long I can take it” financially.
Portela said children face challenges in the courtroom that go beyond simple translation needs.
“I have clients that speak some indigenous language and they don’t even have the words to describe the legal process,” Portela said. “It’s something so far away from their culture … You get the idea of someone in that condition representing themselves in immigration.”
A congressional study of immigration cases from 2005 through 2017 showed that unaccompanied children with legal representation received a removal order 21% of the time, while those without representation were ordered to be removed from the country 84% of the time.
Portela said it seems the Trump White House is moving faster to push immigrant children toward deportation than previous administrations. In an unusual move, he said, all of the 10 to 15 clients in one shelter were summoned to appear in court on Thursday, no matter where their individual cases stood — a legal strategy Portela referred to as a “rocket docket,” a process the government has long used to speed up proceedings in the overcrowded immigration court system.
Gold said children usually remain in shelters for three or four months until they can be reunited with family or with a foster family. Some children remain in the shelter indefinitely (they are eligible until they turn 18). Court hearings are typically conducted via video calls remotely, Gold said, and can vary depending on each child’s legal situation.
Hearings can result in children receiving more time for other parts of their case to be processed, agreeing to voluntarily depart the country or being forcibly removed.
The administration has also sought to limit court delays to 30 days, meaning the children must go in front of a judge repeatedly even while they wait for other legal processes to play out, which can take several months or more. Portela speculated that by having the child request further delays multiple times, the government would argue to a judge “that it’s taking too long and the case should go on” with deportation.
Gold said she is hoping that advocacy organizations file a lawsuit seeking the restoration of funding for the legal work, though it’s not clear if one has yet been filed. On Monday, a network of 100 legal service providers denounced Trump’s move to cut funding.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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