WASHINGTON — Six Democratic senators asked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Oct. 19 to dismantle the department's new in-house unit of lawyers for unaccompanied children and to confirm in writing by Oct. 30 that no HHS attorney will represent a child in immigration proceedings, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth's Senate press release and reporting by Mother Jones.

The letter, led by Duckworth of Illinois and signed by Sens. Richard Durbin, Ron Wyden, Adam Schiff, Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, targets the Unaccompanied Alien Children Legal Representation Division that HHS placed inside its Office of the General Counsel through a Sept. 29 Federal Register notice. "HHS holds these children in custody, decides where they live and shares information about them and their families with immigration enforcement. HHS cannot also be their lawyer," the senators wrote. "The immigration judge works for the Trump Administration. So does the prosecutor. Under your plan, so would the child's lawyer. That is unacceptable."

The senators say the dispute matters now because the contract that paid a national network of nonprofit lawyers to represent children released from federal custody expired on July 31 and, in their account, covered more than 20,000 children. Mother Jones reported on Oct. 19 that a temporary provider, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, has represented only 12 children so far, and that a contract awarded to Our Rescue is on hold after a protest by the Acacia Center for Justice, which ran the old network.

HHS did not respond to Mother Jones' questions, the magazine reported, but the department told the Associated Press that its lawyers would give the department an additional mechanism to provide these children direct legal support while staff work to safely reunify them with their families. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if HHS replies to the senators by their Oct. 30 deadline. Sources: U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, press release (Oct. 19, 2026); Mother Jones (Oct. 19, 2026); Immigration Analytics summary of the letter and the Sept. 29 Federal Register notice (Oct. 20, 2026).