- United States
- Utah
- Letter
In the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi, chapter 17, we read about the Savior coming to the Americas. After teaching the people, the scriptures say, “…and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.
“And when he had done this he wept again;
“And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones”.
I am proud to come from a faith and a state that values and prioritizes children. This is why I find it distressing that the Trump administration has almost entirely forced a halt to the Unaccompanied Children Program (UCP), which provides legal services and direct representation to kids who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian by their side.
This decision completely terminates funding for legal counsel for 26,000 children, including infants and toddlers, forcing them to represent themselves in immigration court before a judge, against a government-trained attorney.
These are vulnerable children—children who have been trafficked or are at high risk of trafficking. Independent children’s rights attorneys protect children from trafficking, abuse and exploitation, helping kids navigate a confusing and often tumultuous legal process in a rapidly evolving immigration system.
The administration’s near total shutdown of the UCP program flies in the face of decades of work and bipartisan cooperation spent ensuring children have appropriately child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests. As the administration is expediting removal proceedings that force people through our nation’s deportation system at an alarming rate, legal services for these children are more crucial than ever.
I urge you to take urgent action to defend vulnerable kids. Please think of the Savior, and please, “behold your little ones”.
Your office can make a difference to protect kids. Please ask HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately restore legal services for unaccompanied children, and demand that the Trump administration rescind the termination of the Unaccompanied Children Program.
