Estrella del Paso will be shutting down its unaccompanied minor defense services, as the funding contract for the federally backed program comes to an end.
The program ended on Friday, July 31. The decision will leave thousands of unaccompanied migrant children without legal representation.
“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,” Melissa Lopez, Estrella del Paso Executive Director, said in a statement.
“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," she said.
The El Paso organization currently represents 243 unaccompanied migrant children.
Estrella del Paso was subcontracted by the Acacia Center for Justice to represent the children in court. The El Paso-based immigrant legal aid organization will have to lay off 13 employees as a result of the closure.
The ending of the funding will impact 20,000 children who arrived in the U.S. without a legal guardian.
The program's closing comes as the federal government owes $765,000 to the organization. Estrella del Paso has not been reimbursed since December 2025, said Melissa Lopez, executive director of the El Paso-based immigrant legal aid group.
The Trump administration attempted to end the contract in April 2025, but a judge blocked the government's attempt after Estrella del Paso and other groups filed a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled that the Trump administration must continue to provide funding for unaccompanied minors because it is required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
A hearing about the payment is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Estrella del Paso was formed as a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, before becoming an independent non-profit in 1990. The organization was founded following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, during President Ronald Reagan's second term, to provide legal services to immigrants.
It is the largest immigrant legal organization in West Texas, serving over 600,000 people with immigrants in detention, regularizing immigration status, and reuniting families, among many other services since its founding. The organization has provided free legal services to migrants since 2022.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@usatodayco.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Migrant children lose legal aid as El Paso program shuts down
