Federal Officials Say Records Show a Migrant Toddler's Court Gap Traced to a Former Legal Contractor
ORR leaders gave Fox a timeline saying the 1-year-old was never left alone and that Acacia failed to file notice of appearance in July. Acacia has not yet responded to Fox.
Officials who oversee unaccompanied migrant children are pushing back on media reports that a 1-year-old boy faced an immigration judge with no one to represent him. They gave Fox News Digital a timeline in an exclusive report.
The officials. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Acting Director Angie Salazar and Senior Advisor John Fabbricatore say headlines overstate the problem. "We don't have this big movement where we have a bunch of 1-year-olds who are going to court," Fabbricatore told Fox. ORR says the child was with his 17-year-old mother at every proceeding.
The timeline. According to ORR records Fox obtained, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers first encountered the pair near Naco, Arizona, on June 25. On July 1, the Acacia Center for Justice, then the federal legal-services contractor, completed a legal orientation for mother and child but did not file a notice of appearance with the court. At the first hearing on July 8, no attorney was present, even though Acacia's contract was active. That contract ended July 31.
The handoff. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) began services Aug. 5. It attended hearings on Aug. 17 and Aug. 28 as a friend of the court. A request for a court-appointed lawyer at government expense was denied after an Aug. 31 filing. Child advocates were appointed Sept. 23, USCRI filed as attorney of record Sept. 25, and it represented both mother and child at a Sept. 29 hearing. A continuance followed Oct. 2, with another hearing set for Friday.
The contract fight. ORR officials say the July lapse is part of why the contract was ended. Federal records on USAspending.gov show HHS awarded Acacia a $356.3 million bridge contract, with more than $236.9 million paid out before it dissolved. Salazar said invoices sometimes ran above $20 million a month and were fully redacted, so she could not tell what was provided. Fabbricatore said the former provider refused to share alien registration numbers. USCRI now holds a $20 million contract that expires Dec. 31.
Numbers ORR cited. About 2 percent of children in its custody are under 5, 85 percent are 13 to 17, and 62 percent are 16 or 17. ORR says USCRI is in about 98 percent of hearings, and 1,690 children are in custody now, versus 22,000 a day under the Biden administration, Fabbricatore said.
Note for readers: this is the agency's own account, and we have not seen the records. Fox said it asked Acacia for comment. Critics of the overhaul may tell the story differently.