The Texas Indigent Defense Commission, a state agency focused on providing legal aid to low-income Texans, found itself at the center of an unusual request. In a move that raised eyebrows across the agency, top officials from the Trump administration sought assistance in providing legal services to immigrant children involved in deportation proceedings.
The request, which came from high-ranking officials within the Texas attorney general‘s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, highlighted the extraordinary nature of the situation. The commission’s executive director, Scott Ehlers, confirmed that the initial call came from lieutenants working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, followed by a reach-out from James McHenry, the DOJ’s chief administrative hearing officer.
The Unusual Request and Its Implications
The request was particularly noteworthy because it fell well outside the commission’s typical scope of work. Established by the state Legislature over a decade ago, the commission’s mandate is explicitly focused on criminal defense. Ehlers made it clear that he did not believe immigration defense for children was legal under the organization’s mandate.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed that officials from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, responsible for the care of immigrant children, sought assistance from the Texas Attorney General’s office. The DOJ was asked to look into the legality of contracting with the Texas commission, with federal funds potentially funneled through the Office of Refugee Resettlement. However, the agency did not respond to further questions about a proposed contract.
The Broader Context of Immigration Policies
The request comes at a time when the Trump administration is actively seeking to end protections for immigrant children on multiple fronts. This includes threatening to terminate the existing federally-mandated contract for legal assistance to minors facing deportation. The temporary contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, a national nonprofit, is set to end soon.
Simultaneously, the government has abruptly shuttered at least 50 federal shelters detaining immigrant children across Democratic states such as New York, Illinois, and Michigan. This has led to concerns that Texas may soon receive children from elsewhere in the country, given the current restrictions on border crossings.
Lawyers and advocates worry that the administration’s calls to Texas suggest a broader effort to transfer unaccompanied minors to the state, from where it is easier to quickly deport them. Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center, expressed concerns about the potential transfer of children to Texas, where there is no independent oversight of facilities and where many attorneys with whom children have built trust are not present.
The Administration’s Efforts to End Protections
Congress passed a bipartisan bill in 2000 that required the government to pay for some legal services for children who cross the border alone. The demand for funding became more urgent starting in 2012 when hundreds of thousands of immigrant children, mostly from Central America, began crossing the Texas border seeking to escape violence and poverty or reunite with their relatives in the U.S.
Since taking office, Trump officials have chipped away at these protections, making it more difficult for relatives to obtain children in custody, arresting them after welfare checks, and suing to end a decades-long federal settlement agreement overseeing the rights of children in custody. Children are now staying in federal detention for months, prompting congressional scrutiny.
The administration is also litigating to end the legally mandated representation contract in federal court and has failed to pay providers while last month raiding some organization’s offices seeking evidence of financial impropriety and personal information of children. The government is considering having military lawyers represent the government in children’s cases.
The Legal and Ethical Concerns
Lawyers for the advocates at the next hearing in the ongoing lawsuit plan to argue that the government is in contempt of federal court, partly because of the lack of payment. Kids In Need of Defense, a nonprofit founded by actress Angelina Jolie and the Microsoft Corporation, ended its subcontract with the Acacia Center this week, citing the government’s failure to pay over $20 million for legal services going back as far as December.
The overarching temporary contract, overseen by the Acacia Center, ends soon. Although the administration is required to provide the organization with weeks of notice for how to transition the ongoing legal cases of children, it has not yet done so, which the groups argue is unlawful. At the same time, repatriation organizations in Central America have been told to prepare for a large number of children returned by the same day that contract ends.
In a recent letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden expressed concerns about the administration’s plans for immigrant kids. Wyden’s staff raised concerns with Texas officials about the potential contract for legal representation but did not receive a confirmation of a plan.
The Role of Texas in Immigration Policies
Immigration rights advocates say consolidating immigrant children in a border state aligned with the Trump administration would make it easier to deport them. Jonathan White, a former deputy director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement during Trump’s first administration, described the recent effort as part of a larger pattern of moving all of the program’s capabilities and resources into Texas.
Texas cases are argued to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has frequently ruled in the Trump administration’s favor on cases seeking to restrict the rights of immigrants. The state also no longer regulates childcare facilities for immigrant children, preventing the state from investigating claims of neglect and abuse as it had for decades.
Rochelle Garza, a South Texas attorney and executive director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, criticized the administration’s outreach to Texas, describing it as an attempt to undermine the federal government’s constitutional role and responsibility to execute immigration law.
The Texas Indigent Defense Commission’s Mandate
It remains unclear whether the Texas Indigent Defense Commission can legally take on the work representing immigrant children. Rodney Ellis, a current Harris County commissioner, was a Houston state senator when he helped usher through a law creating the state’s legal framework for indigent defense. Ellis and two commission board members said the administration’s request for assistance on immigrant children was confounding.
The legislation required courts to formalize procedures to provide attorneys for those who cannot afford them and set the stage for the creation of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission in 2011. Since then, the number of misdemeanor defendants without attorneys in the state has dropped by more than a half.
The organization oversees nearly three dozen state public defender offices serving more than 80 counties and operates as an entity funneling state money and highlighting best practices. Despite its successes, the commission faces a significant attorney shortage and not enough resources to meet demand, making Texas the 46th in the nation when it comes to public defense funding per capita.
Jim Bethke, a vice chair of the commission’s board, emphasized that the commission was created to improve criminal defense, not initiatives outside of that mandate. State Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat and member of the board, also expressed concerns, noting that the Legislature in 2026 expanded the commission’s mandate to help with state family protective services cases, which has never been fully funded.
The government has previously attempted to move immigrant children to the Texas border and quickly deport them. Last year, government contractors awakened Guatemalan children in federal shelters or foster care and with little notification to their lawyers, abruptly transferred them to shelters near the Texas border. A federal judge halted that effort as some children were on a plane in Harlingen about to fly to Guatemala. The litigation is ongoing.
These suspected moves to Texas would be the next phase of that same policy playbook, according to Marion “Mickey” Donovan-Kaloust, director of legal services for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a nonprofit organization in California involved in the legal case.
