Congressman Dan Goldman and more than 70 House Democrats are calling on Congress to demand greater transparency from the Department of Justice regarding how the nation’s immigration courts handle cases involving thousands of unaccompanied children.
In a letter submitted in May, the lawmakers called out the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) recent decision to rescind a December 2023 directive that helped combat child trafficking and enhance efficiency in overloaded immigration courts.
That directive, Director’s Memorandum 24-01, established specialized juvenile dockets, which were designed to streamline proceedings for minors and introduce child-appropriate, anti-trafficking safeguards. EOIR, the DOJ agency that conducts immigration court proceedings, rolled back the policy this March, reinstating a 2017 memorandum that lacks many of the protections and procedural improvements previously established.
In a statement, Congresswoman Grace Meng acknowledged the concerns raised, calling the issue “critical.” She added, “We thank those who have reached out about it. We receive hundreds of letters on many different issues that fall under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction, and we’re in the process of reviewing them.” Meng also pressed her colleagues to act, saying, “We hope that the Chair and House majority will take these concerns seriously as well.”
Goldman and his colleagues sent the letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies to urge their intervention, framing their request as a matter of both moral and legal urgency.
“The immigration courts are…an important element of creating a system that ensures unaccompanied children are protected,” the lawmakers wrote, requesting committee leaders to require the EOIR to submit a comprehensive report on the status of these children’s cases. They noted that the rollback of the directive jeopardized the fairness of immigration proceedings for unaccompanied minors and exacerbated delays in an already overwhelmed court system.
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“This change threatens to create unnecessary delays, which further exacerbate the severe immigration court backlog,” the letter stated. “It also diminishes critical safeguards designed to ensure that children can seek relief for which they may be eligible and that they comply with their immigration responsibilities.”
A recent series of actions by former President Donald Trump has further complicated the legal path for unaccompanied children already in crisis. In March, the Trump administration cut $367 million in federal funding designated for legal aid to unaccompanied minors and immigrants with mental illnesses. The cuts threatened to leave about 26,000 unaccompanied children without legal representation as they navigated complex immigration proceedings. In April, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction halting the cuts.
The letter, addressed to Subcommittee Chair Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Ranking Member Grace Meng (D-NY), asked appropriators to include language in the FY 2026 funding bill directing EOIR to continue the use of juvenile dockets and to report on their implementation.
Specifically, the requested report should detail which immigration courts are using juvenile dockets, the training provided to judges overseeing those cases, any limitations on judges’ use of docket management tools for children’s cases, efforts to help children obtain legal representation, and other relevant practices or barriers. In addition, they asked that the proposed report should be due within 180 days of the spending bill’s enactment.
The lawmakers argued that tailored procedures for child respondents not only improve due process but also help prevent trafficking, exploitation, and abuse, which are the risks that unaccompanied minors often face.
