The reversal of the plan, which had not been publicly disclosed, comes amid mounting confusion about how the administration is protecting the rights of unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration on Wednesday abruptly scrapped a plan to recruit retiring Pentagon lawyers to represent unaccompanied minors in immigration court, a move that would have asked attorneys with little relevant legal experience to help migrant children facing deportation.<\/p>\n
The shift deepened confusion about how the federal government planned to fulfill its legal obligation to protect the rights of the more than 20,000 unaccompanied minors with pending immigration cases, who advocates say are uniquely vulnerable amid the administration\u2019s push for mass expulsions.<\/p>\n
A federal contract with a network of legal nonprofit groups that had long represented unaccompanied minors ended last month. The Trump administration signed a short-term deal earlier this month with an organization best known for its focus on human trafficking, an arrangement that would provide the children with lawyers. Opponents of the move have noted that the group, Our Rescue, has little experience handling immigration court cases.<\/p>\n
The administration had also been developing another stopgap measure. Officials with the Defense Department and the Health and Human Services Department, which is responsible for the welfare of migrant children who have no parent or legal guardian to care for them in the United States, told The New York Times earlier this week that the administration was recruiting Pentagon lawyers who had recently retired or had planned to retire soon to serve as attorneys for the children.<\/p>\n
Such an arrangement would have been a departure from the kind of work typically provided by Pentagon lawyers, who have experience on a broad array of matters for the civilian and military branches of the armed services. That includes prosecuting or defending service members in courts-martial, reviewing contracts for new weapons and ensuring troops follow the laws of armed conflict.<\/p>\n
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