Bill Summary: Fair Day in Court for Kids Act


August 6, 2026

In 2016, the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act was introduced in Congress for the first time to guarantee legal counsel for all unaccompanied children and other vulnerable individuals in immigration court proceedings. Reintroduced in the 119th Congress, the legislation now also contains additional safeguards to ensure that unaccompanied children have access to counsel throughout their case and fair legal proceedings. 

The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to repeal protections for unaccompanied children, both in the President’s first and second term in office. In 2018 and 2025, the administration sought to end the Flores Settlement Agreement, which would allow the government to indefinitely detain immigrant children at the border and eliminate the requirement that children are provided adequate food, water, and clean clothes. 

Most recently, on July 31, the administration ended a vital federal contract that provided legal services and representation to over 20,000 unaccompanied children. Congress must act now to ensure that unaccompanied children as young as 2-years-old have a fair legal process and are protected from trafficking and abuse. 

The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act

The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act (H.R. 9259/S. 1297) – led by Representative Zoe Lofgren and Senator Mazie Hirono –  would provide mandated counsel and representation for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings. It includes measures to establish infrastructure and systems for the appointment of competent counsel and ensures that unaccompanied children are legally represented throughout their entire case, beginning with their initial appearance in removal proceedings and ending with the termination of all immigration related proceedings. Under the bill, counsel provided to unaccompanied children, at the expense of the government if necessary, would be mandated to:

  • Represent the child in all proceedings and legal matters related to immigration status
  • Represent the child in all legal actions involving the Department of Homeland Security, including interviews
  • Appear in person for the child’s individual merit hearings and master calendar hearings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review
  • Provide the same loyalty, confidentiality, and representation as would be provided to an adult client 
  • Advocate for the child’s legal interests as directed by the child’s express wishes
  • Refer the child to an independent child advocate if the child does not express objectives or is found incompetent
  • Carry out any other legal duties related to the child’s case prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and/or the Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review

The bill strengthens due process protections by guaranteeing access to counsel for all people detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection, or privately contracted detention facilities. It requires the government to provide unaccompanied children with legal representation during court proceedings, inform children of their right to representation within 72 hours, and provide their attorneys with a complete copy of the noncitizen’s immigration file within 7 days of the first court notice. 

Church World Service urges Members of Congress to cosponsor and pass the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act to protect unaccompanied children’s rights in immigration proceedings and ensure due process. Research indicates that legal representation for unaccompanied children greatly increases the possibility of the child being allowed to remain in their country and increases opportunities to identify and confront instances where children are being abused or exploited. 

Why Legal Representation for Children is Essential

In 1997, the landmark Flores Settlement Agreement established humane standards for the treatment of unaccompanied children in government custody and mandated their release to relatives or sponsors without unnecessary delay. Protections for unaccompanied children in the U.S. immigration system have gone through many changes; in 2024, the Biden administration published its final regulations for the care of unaccompanied children in the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) custody and partially terminated the Flores Settlement Agreement through the creation of a new set of rules. 

In addition to changing regulations regarding their care and safety, unaccompanied children face a severe lack of legal representation, with data from 2024 showing that only 57% of children with pending cases had a lawyer. Though the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA) of 2008 called for the government to assist unaccompanied children in finding a lawyer “subject to available appropriations,” it did not mandate that every child is provided one, allowing for gaps to persist.

On July 4, 2025, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) was signed into law, establishing a number of harmful restrictions across the U.S. immigration system, including several that affect unaccompanied children. Many of the changes, such as the creation of a high application fee for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and screenings of children for gang markings in ORR custody, place an additional strain on unaccompanied children already struggling to navigate a complicated immigration process. 

In April 2025, a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to slash funding that provided legal representation to 26,000 unaccompanied children. A month later, the administration filed a new motion to terminate the Flores Settlement agreement that, if successful, would allow children to be detained in harmful conditions with a lack of basic survival protections. Today, the government continues to appeal the court’s rejection of its termination attempt. The administration’s repeated attempts to repeal safeguards for unaccompanied children emphasizes the importance of fair immigration proceedings and access to legal services for all noncitizens.

Today, unaccompanied children are being detained and deported at three times the rate in comparison to the first Trump presidency. Children as young as 4-years-old are being forced to attend their own deportation hearings. In New York, unaccompanied children have logged onto mass hearings with no one but shelter workers to help them understand what was happening. An 8-year-old girl from Ecuador seeking asylum and SIJS was deported, even though her mother was allowed to stay. In April 2026, the U.S. government attempted to deport a 10-year-old child to Ecuador who did not have an attorney and whose mother was imprisoned in an ICE facility.

These cases are only a few examples of the due process failures unaccompanied children face in the U.S. immigration system. During President Trump’s second term, immigration judges have issued more than 10,000 removals of immigrant minors per month – a rate nearly four times higher than during Trump’s first term. Legal services to unaccompanied children are under severe threat. Many unaccompanied children do not speak English or are too young to understand court proceedings and need attorneys and interpreters to navigate legal systems. On July 31, 2026, nearly 100 legal service providers for unaccompanied children will lose their federal funding with the expiration of a federal temporary contract with the Acacia Center for Justice that allows these organizations to provide critical legal support to kids.

Without legal representation for unaccompanied children, mass hearings and deportations of toddlers and teenagers alike is likely to continue. Unaccompanied children without access to counsel risk aging out of protections such as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Additionally, unaccompanied children with legal representation are 100 times more likely to be granted relief by immigration judges than those without it. Our constitutional right to due process for both citizens and noncitizens in the United States is at risk. Congress must pass the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act to ensure that every unaccompanied child has an attorney and a fair chance to defend their rights.

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Editor’s note: the CWS Policy Team would like to thank Policy & Advocacy Intern Sameeksha Arutla for her substantial contributions to this resource.