Estrella del Paso resumes providing services for unaccompanied children
Update (February 21, 2025): Estrella del Paso says services are being resumed. Officials with the organization released the following statement:
"We are back! Today, Estrella del Paso received notice from the Department the Interior that we can immediately resume work providing representation and legal access services to unaccompanied children.
We are grateful for the tremendous response and outpouring of support we have received from our community, and from supporters. Thank you! We are excited to get back to this very important work, and to share personally with the children that so many people stood up to defend them.
Many children who arrive alone, without a parent or guardian, have experienced trauma, suffered violence, abuse, and trafficking. Estrella del Paso’s team of orientation specialists, social workers, and attorneys are often their first and only opportunity at obtaining legal representation. Our program's motto is that children are unaccompanied, but never alone. No child deserves to ever face a judge alone.
While we welcome the news of the stop work order being rescinded, we are also aware that we may face future attacks on our work. We are committed to continuing to serve this community and will not back down from our mission to protect immigrants’ rights and advance justice. We are blessed to be in this fight with you."
Update: Estrella del Paso held a virtual news conference where Executive Director Melissa Lopez along with other managing attorneys part of the Unaccompanied Children's Program spoke about this order to stop legal services.
"We are not talking about a handful of cases, we are talking about hundreds of children, likely several thousand who, you know, without this funding we will continue to represent them because we are not going to leave them alone. But we will be in a very difficult position financially in terms of trying to figure out how we can continue to represent them," Executive Director Lopez said.
This stop order will not prohibit Estrella del Paso from offering legal services, but they will have to find alternative funding or donations to keep assisting these children.
According to Executive Director Lopez, the cost of the children's program is more than $3,000,000 a year.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A spokesperson for Estrella del Paso, formerly known as Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, says the organization has been ordered to "immediately stop providing services to Unaccompanied Children."
The spokesperson says that the program is funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
"This action threatens the ongoing representation of approximately 26,000 children both in and outside the shelter system who have pending immigration proceedings, including 1,273 children who are clients of Estrella del Paso and currently have active immigration cases," the spokesperson explained.
Estrella del Paso says that its Unaccompanied Minors Program provided services for 9,000 children in El Paso area shelters operated by the office in 2024.
