Some immigrant children in Texas are navigating immigration court without a lawyer after the Trump administration stopped funding a federal legal-services program for unaccompanied minors. The partnership between the U.S. government and the Acacia Center for Justice ended July 31, disrupting services that had reached more than 20,000 children nationwide. The change has not automatically left every child without counsel. Some organizations have found other funding or continued existing cases, and some attorneys are working without pay. But providers say they cannot offer the same level of legal help. “The organizations that have been working with children are unable to provide the same legal services,” said Dalia Castillo-Granados, director of the American Bar Association’s Children’s Immigration Law Academy. The impact is difficult to measure in Texas. The Office of Refugee Resettlement reported that 3,418 unaccompanied children were released to sponsors in the state during fiscal 2025, including 316 in Travis County. Those figures do not show how many have attorneys in their ongoing immigration cases. A Mexican mother in Austin, who asked not to be identified because of immigration concerns, remembers losing contact with her 14-year-old son for several days after he crossed the Rio Grande with a smuggler and was detained. Authorities later transferred him to federal care and contacted her as a potential sponsor. Although she was in the United States, he was processed as an unaccompanied child because he had arrived without a parent or legal guardian. His release did not end his immigration case. For four years, he continued attending hearings. Before an April 2026 hearing in San Antonio, he told his mother he was afraid of being deported and did not want to return to Mexico. She waited outside the courthouse rather than accompany him inside, worried that she could be detained. The hearing ended without a decision; he is due back in court in April 2027. The now-18-year-old has an attorney, but advocates warn that children without one may struggle to understand proceedings or respond to a judge. “They don’t have somebody who understands maybe what the judge is even asking them,” said Marcela Evans, managing attorney at the Texas Immigration Law Council. Trudy Taylor Smith, a senior policy and advocacy administrator at Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, said some lawyers have continued representing children without pay. Other organizations have cut staff or reduced services, said providers. National immigration-court data show a broader decline in representation: the share of completed cases involving a lawyer fell from 63% in fiscal 2021 to 32% in fiscal 2026, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The data are not specific to unaccompanied children. Texas advocates say they cannot determine how many children in the state currently lack counsel. The Department of Health and Human Services said the Office of Refugee Resettlement provided a grant supplement to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants on Aug. 5, then expanded its agreement with the group on Aug. 25 to include legal consultations, court appearances and direct representation for children in its custody. The department said the services are available nationwide, including in Texas. ORR also reported that at least 3,500 children per month from November through March had no notice of legal representation filed with federal immigration agencies. HHS said ORR offered Acacia a temporary contract with new reporting requirements. Acacia said it rejected the proposal because it would have required legal providers to share confidential client information to receive payment. The Austin teenager’s mother said her son still attends school and has legal representation, but the case and the family’s fears remain unresolved. When she worries about what may happen, she said, he tells her: “Have faith, Mom. Everything is going to be OK.”