The Weekly Dispatch
Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.
Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration, labor, and economics reporter.
Today, we’re exploring the risks possible state and federal funding cuts pose to youth who have immigrated to the United States alone. This population, often referred to as unaccompanied minors, has been in a precarious position since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, and shortly thereafter began targeting immigrant youth.
Among these targeted efforts are attempts to dismantle the legal aid infrastructure available to them. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abruptly terminated a contract providing legal aid funding for tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide, leaving their cases – and long-term futures in the U.S. – in limbo.
“What we’ve seen is a whole system attack on protections for unaccompanied children,” said Hortencia Rodriguez, director of community partnerships at the Acacia Center for Justice, which facilitates legal representation to unaccompanied minors through the federal contract the Trump administration terminated. While the contract funds were temporarily restored amid ongoing legal action, the long-term funding prospects for the program are still at risk. “The worst-case scenario is the elimination of the program entirely,” Rodriguez said.
These policies have compounded the challenges facing an already vulnerable youth population, thousands of whom call the East Bay home. According to the most recent data from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Alameda County has one of the state’s largest populations of unaccompanied minors, with 190 youth resettling in the community in the 2025 fiscal year–second only to Los Angeles. Since 2015, more than 6,300 unaccompanied children have moved to the county. Now, those who have secured legal support through the federally-funded program face an uncertain future.
At the state level, too, funding for social and legal services for unaccompanied minors are imperiled. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised 2026–27 state budget, which was released yesterday, does not include funding for a state-run program that provides unaccompanied youth with legal aid, as well as wraparound social services, including medical care, mental health support, and housing assistance. If the final budget passed by the legislature by midnight on June 15 does not extend this funding request, then California’s program will come to an end.
“A young person who doesn’t have networks of family support is much more isolated to begin with.” said Lisa Hoffman, the Co-Executive Director of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, which has provided legal support to about 860 unaccompanied youth fleeing gang violence, trafficking and domestic abuse since 2014. “And that makes them much more vulnerable to the very real fears of: what If I’m deported? What if I’m detained? But also the psychological impact of everything that’s going on.”
Legal aid for unaccompanied youth in limbo
The funding that is at stake ensures that immigrant youth, sometimes too young to speak or read, aren’t left to navigate the immigration court system without legal representation.
The contract allocated roughly $200 million annually to the Acacia Center for Justice. The organization disperses this federal funding to a network of over 80 legal aid organizations nationwide, which collectively represent 26,000 children. In California, which is home to the nation’s second-largest population of unaccompanied minors behind Texas, this contract funds 20 legal services providers and “subsidizes a good portion of the immigration legal services infrastructure, meaning that it provides more funding than all of the youth legal service programs in California combined,” Rodriguez said. About 4,000 unaccompanied minors in the state have legal representation through this initiative, which is called the Unaccompanied Children Program.
A coalition of immigrant rights groups sued the administration over the contract termination, and in April 2025, a federal judge temporarily restored the cut funding while the case makes its way through court (litigation is ongoing). Since then, the administration has issued a series of three-month funding extensions for the program while the lawsuit proceeds, with the latest period slated to expire at the end of June, according to Rodriguez. These incremental contract extensions have left legal aid providers operating in a type of gray zone, uncertain if their funding will last more than a few months.
If the federal government ends the contract altogether when the litigation is resolved, Rodriguez said the impacts on the tens of thousands of youth represented by attorneys funded through the program would be “absolutely devastating. I think we would likely see a pattern of attorneys having to relieve themselves from cases, potentially even the attorneys losing their jobs and the organizations having to close down. And that’s why we want to emphasize that the state funding is so important because it offers a safety net for these kids. ”
State funding for unaccompanied minors at risk in California budget
The uncertain future of the federal contract has influenced calls by legal aid providers like Acacia to double-down on state programs that support immigrant youth. One such initiative is the for Children’s Holistic Immigration Representation Project (CHIRP), a state-run program that provides comprehensive legal and social service support to unaccompanied youth.
CHIRP was launched in 2022 as a pilot program, and therefore is funded on one-time budget allocations annually. This year, amid the Trump administration’s attacks on the legal aid infrastructure that supports unaccompanied youth, advocates asked Newsom to renew CHIRP funding by $15 million in California’s 2026-2027 budget, according to Rodriguez. These funds, they say, can help fill the gap if federal dollars for the Unaccompanied Children Program are revoked.
The requested funds for CHIRP were not included in Newsom’s proposed state budget in January. Nor were they included in Newsom’s revised state budget, which was unveiled yesterday. Lawmakers and advocates who are pushing for these funds to be included have about a month left to lobby the legislature before its June 15 deadline to pass a final budget.
A similar chain of events unfolded last year when Newsom’s proposed 2025-26 budget did not include funding for CHIRP. However, the final budget passed by the legislature allocated $10 million to fund the program through the end of the year.
We’ll be keeping track of this as deliberations over the final budget proceed. If you have thoughts or a story to share, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at ehellerstein@eltimpano.org.
P.S.: The Weekly Dispatch is celebrating an exciting milestone. We were just named a finalist in the Sacramento Press Club’s Golden State Journalism Award for the best politics/policy newsletter! Thank you for being a dedicated reader in the Dispatch’s first year.
Thank you, see you next week.
—Erica Hellerstein
Resource of the week
Alameda County has one of the state’s largest populations of unaccompanied minors, with 190 youth resettling in the community in the 2025 fiscal year—second only to Los Angeles. But legal aid for this group remains in limbo. Our Spanish-language resource guide highlights Bay Area organizations offering free or low-cost legal services for immigration cases—including those for unaccompanied minors.
Share El Tímpano’s resource guide with people who can use it and let them know they can text us any questions at (510) 800-8305.
Ear to the Ground
Hi, I’m Vanessa Flores, El Tímpano’s community reporter. El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,500 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. Last month, the Oakland City Council approved a legislative package to combat its ongoing problem with illegal dumping. The package includes new enforcement actions, such as higher fines for first and repeat offenders, and the use of AI drones to detect and respond to dumping.
“I work at the Coliseum Flea Market, and people are always dumping trash—a lot of trash. Some days it’s clean, but then the next week, it’s back again!” an Oakland subscriber responded to our call out this week on the topic.
Illegal dumping is a concern our Oakland SMS community has shared for years, and one we have reported on. Many of them have expressed frustration, highlighting health and safety concerns, as well as the difficulty of navigating their neighborhood streets with children or elders due to sidewalks blocked by trash.
In an audit published in April, the city received over 25,000 service requests relating to illegal dumping in 2025, which, on average, it says amounts to about 70 illegal dumping clean up requests per day.
“I really hope this [initiative] works out and that this area is given the attention it deserves,” the Oakland subscriber went on to tell us. “After all, people come to visit [the flea market] from as far away as other states, and it is truly disappointing for them to leave with an impression [of Oakland] like this.”
—Vanessa Flores
From the El Tímpano Newsroom
In early March, El Tímpano shared information with our SMS text message subscribers about potential cuts to BART service, including the closure of some stations. Lourdes Ramos Martinez, a Fremont resident, was one of many who responded and explained how she frequently uses BART to get to her daughter’s doctor’s appointments in Oakland and San Francisco for her liver condition.
We followed up with Ramos who explained that she often gets off at Warm Springs BART station, which is one of the stations slated for closure. Reporter, Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez, and photographer, Hiram Alejandro Durán, followed Ramos and her daughter on their commute. This week, we bring you Martinez’s as-told-to first person narrative “Mi Historia.”
My Daughter needed a liver transplant to save her life. BART is key to her ongoing care.
A series of spring rain storms have led to a spate of recent mushroom poisonings in the Bay Area, according to California public health officials. The most recent cases are the latest in an unprecedented poisoning outbreak in the state that has sickened at least 47 people since November 2025. We revisit our February story about what has led to the uptick in poisonings, and why the Bay Area’s immigrant populations appear to be disproportionately impacted.
Deadly lookalikes
Stories we’re Following
Bay Area
California
National
Become a supporter
El Tímpano produces civic media with, for, and about the 1.8 million Latino and Mayan immigrants who call the Bay Area home. We cannot do it without your support. Become a monthly donor today.
Questions and feedback? Tips for newsroom stories? Reach out ehellerstein@eltimpano.org.
To change your subscription settings, click on this link.
Copyright © 2025 El Tímpano, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you expressed your interest, online or in person, to receive updates from El Tímpano.
Our mailing address is:
El Tímpano
PO Box 102894
Pasadena, CA 91189-2894