GivingTuesday is just around the corner on December 1st!
We believe every child fighting their immigration case should have a lawyer by their side. Your contribution to the National Immigrant Justice Center on GivingTuesday can help provide legal services that keep families together and let kids thrive.
Did you know that federal contracts that ensured unaccompanied children had access to legal advice and representation ended this summer? Since then, more children have been scheduled for interviews and hearings that could push them into deportation proceedings with no one in their corner.
Our goal for GivingTuesday is to raise $75,000 to help provide legal services to children and their families. Whatever the amount you can give, you are helping to put a lawyer in a child’s corner.
Add Giving Tuesday to your calendar:
Add to Calendar
Learn more about NIJC’s commitment to immigrant children from our Annual Report:
Immigrant children, including those who enter the United States as unaccompanied children, have limited access to attorneys but face government prosecutors who advocate for their deportation.
Having a lawyer makes a huge difference, especially for kids. Unaccompanied children with legal representation are more than seven times more likely to receive an outcome allowing them to remain in the United States, compared to those who have no representation (Vera, 2021).
For many years, the federal government has funded NIJC and similar organizations to provide legal information and representation to unaccompanied children. But in early 2025, the government sought to terminate this program, prompting NIJC and others to sue to keep the program in place. This forced the government to maintain the program, but the government did not renew the contract with existing service providers, which ended on July 31, 2026. NIJC planned for this challenge throughout the past year and remains committed to advancing access to counsel for immigrant children.
Thanks to gap funding and ongoing fundraising, NIJC will continue to represent more than 300 unaccompanied children with open cases, including more than 100 who were suddenly scheduled for asylum interviews and/or removal hearings. NIJC will also continue to identify children and families who need legal services, including through a new Illinois school-based helpdesk program.