WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Friday ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.

The Acacia Center for Justice contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied migrant children under 18, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters.

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Acacia said they were informed Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was terminating nearly all the legal work that the center does, including paying for lawyers for roughly 26,000 children when they go to immigration court. They’re still contracted to hold the legal orientation clinics.

“It’s extremely concerning because it’s leaving these kids without really important support,” said Ailin Buigues, who heads Acacia’s unaccompanied children program. “They’re often in a very vulnerable position.”

People fighting deportation do not have the same right to representation as people going through criminal courts, although they can hire private attorneys.

But there has been some recognition that children navigating the immigration court system without a parent or guardian are especially vulnerable.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian.

Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement that the department “continues to meet the legal requirements established” by the Act as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated.

The termination comes days before the contract was to come up for renewal on March 29. Roughly a month ago the government temporarily halted all the legal work Acacia and its subcontractors do for immigrant children, but then days later Health and Human Services reversed that decision.

The program is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not.

A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated “for the Government’s convenience.”

Michael Lukens is the executive director of Amica, which is one of the providers contracting with Acacia in the Washington, D.C. area. He said with the renewal date swiftly approaching, they had been worried something like this would happen.

He said they will continue to help as many kids as they can “for as long as possible” and will try to fight the termination.

“We’re trying to pull every lever but we have to be prepared for the worst, which is children going to court without attorneys all over the country. This is a complete collapse of the system,” he said.

Roseville police say they have arrested 29 people in a blitz as part of a metro-wide initiative to stop rising retail thefts.

One of the 29 was arrested Wednesday in connection with the felony theft of more than $25,000 in merchandize from stores in Roseville, Maplewood, Richfield, Oakdale, Apple Valley, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie and Rochester. The thefts occurred between June 2024 and March 2025.

“We know organized retail crime is a growing problem in communities across the country. These highly organized crime rings are stealing and reselling millions of dollars in merchandise, negatively impacting local businesses, employees, community members and our local economy,” said Police Chief Erika Scheider. “Roseville Police, in coordination with the Minnesota Organized Retail Crime Association, is taking proactive steps to address these issues in our community.”

During the operation, retailers were instructed to call the Roseville Police Department’s retail unit directly to report thefts in real time. The department then deployed officers and marked squads to the area to be in position when the suspects left the store. Other police staff provided real-time intelligence on suspects and vehicles at various locations and were able to direct police to locate and detain getaway drivers.

Seven of the people arrested were booked at the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center on felony or gross misdemeanor charges. The remaining suspects were issued citations for misdemeanors.

Police recovered more than $5,100 in merchandise that was returned to retailers. Local retailers, including those in Har Mar, Target, Rosedale Center, Rosedale Commons and nearby strip malls, participated by bolstering their staffing, with some bringing in national loss prevention teams to assist.

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“As current city workers, we believe that all citywide candidates, especially those that have representation on the New York City Employees’ Retirement System’s Board of Trustees, should commit to divesting from Israeli securities.”

A marker directs voters to their poll site on Election Day (Adi Talwar)

It’s election season again in New York City, and candidates are making bold promises to win your vote. Last month, Councilmember and Comptroller candidate Justin Brannan wrote an op-ed committing to divest the City’s $274 billion pension funds from fossil fuel holdings and into sustainable investments, if elected. This is a welcome commitment and builds off of current efforts to decarbonize our pension funds. Fighting climate change is an existential imperative as every dollar invested in the fossil fuel industry brings us closer to an uninhabitable planet.

But our fight for justice cannot be selective. Even if we completely divest from the fossil fuel industry, our pension funds will still be morally compromised. The New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), the city’s largest pension system, boasts about $88 billion in benefit-restricted assets and currently invests over $115 million in Israeli stocks and bonds. These investments directly and indirectly fund Israel’s war in Gaza, the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and the destruction of its land and people. 

By investing in these securities, New York City provides moral and legal cover for Israel despite operating with impunity for decades. Just as we shouldn’t invest in fossil fuel companies profiting off of climate change, New York City should not financially support a country described as an apartheid state and whose leaders have active International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants out for war crimes. As current city workers, we believe that all citywide candidates, especially those that have representation on NYCERS Board of Trustees, including the mayor, comptroller, and public advocate, should commit to divesting from Israeli securities.

These issues may seem far away or abstract, but they have very real human consequences. NYCERS invests approximately $2 million in Israel Chemicals Limited (ICL), a multinational chemicals manufacturer and the sole supplier of white phosphorus to the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. sells white phosphorus—an incendiary weapon whose use is heavily regulated by the international community—to Israel, which illegally used it against Lebanese civilians, destroying crops, livestock, and farmland in the process.

To underscore Councilmember Brannan’s previous op-ed on divesting from fossil fuel companies: whether the perpetrators are companies or states, we cannot pick and choose which environmental crisis to care about. 

NYCERS invests another $3 million in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer, whose revenues have soared due to weapons demand from the war on Gaza and the Palestinian people. These and more securities—on top of the $8 million or so in Israeli bonds held by NYCERS—are a glaring violation of our values and undermine our city’s commitment to human rights and environmental justice.

City workers’ pension funds are implicated in all of this. It is our money that is helping make bombs and chemical agents that are used against civilians. It is our money that is fueling ethnic cleansing in Gaza, terrorizing the West Bank, and legitimizing an increasingly rogue state widely condemned by the international community.

These investments make up a small percentage of our total holdings, and NYCERS has divested from various causes, and quickly at that. We are not alone in demanding divestment, and New York City should neither feed into nor help lay the groundwork for Trump and his cronies’ ludicrous dream of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Our financial returns must not come at the expense of Palestinian lives or their sovereignty, and that is why we must divest our pension funds from Israel.

Reyna Wang, Ryan Hickey, Jack Lundquist, Meghan Peterson, and Isaac Kirk-Davidoff are affiliated with the group City Workers for Palestine.

The post Opinion: NYC Workers Ask NYC Candidates to Divest Our Pensions from War appeared first on City Limits.