Texas Impact staff are heading north for our first two Ready. Set. Go! events, which are this weekend in Denton and Dallas. More than 100 folks are signed up for each event, and we’re looking forward to great presentations and network-building. There’s still time to register—we hope to see you there!
This week—today in fact—marks an inflection point in immigrant child detention that Texas Impact and our partner organizations are watching closely. The administration is canceling its longstanding contracts with legal service providers who represent unaccompanied migrant children in court (after stiffing them for services already provided to the tune of $65 million).
At the same time, the administration has canceled contracts with state-regulated shelters for migrant children in northern states, and appears to be planning to send children from those states to Texas, which does not regulate migrant child detention facilities.
I was a guest on Nick Valencia’s program yesterday, along with Shaina Aber, executive director of Acacia Justice, which has held the overseeing federal contract for legal representation to immigrant children. As Shaina explained, children are being detained in communities across the country, in many cases when they actually do have an adult guardian.
Immigration experts have raised the particular concern that if children are brought to Texas with the intention of expedited deportation, they will be placed at extreme risk of human trafficking. Today, our colleagues at FaithWorks delivered a letter on behalf of themselves, Texas Impact, and other groups urging Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton to reject requests for Texas to participate in federal attempts to short-circuit legal representation for migrant children.
TAKE ACTION: Urge Gov. Abbott to reject federal immigration schemes that put kids in danger
Call: (512) 463-2000
Here’s more coverage of this evolving issue:
https://nysfocus.com/2026/05/19/unaccompanied-immigrant-children-orr-contracts
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/31/unaccompanied-children-manhattan-immigration-court
Also on Nick’s show yesterday was Gabby Soto, wife of Delaney Hall detainee Martin Soto. Soto is now in solitary confinement after participating in a hunger strike in the GEO Group facility. Detainees say Delaney Hall fed them worm-infested food, fitting a pattern of abusive treatment in migrant detention facilities. This week a pediatric critical care doctor from Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. said CoreCivic’s South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley is guilty of child abuse following a tour of the facility.
Immigration is a federal issue, and what’s needed is comprehensive, federal immigration reform—not violent enforcement that terrorizes communities. Moreover, the administration’s violent immigration enforcement regime is made possible with funding that was cut from core economic assistance programs including SNAP, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act in HR1, the “One Big Bill” Congress passed last year. Texas Impact is part of the Covenant for Our Future, a national campaign to repeal HR1 and restore the moral foundation of our national policy framework.
It’s tempting to blame the current administration for the current economic and social chaos we’re experiencing. But Congress is in charge of the budget; Congress makes federal immigration laws; and Congress appears to be asleep at the wheel.
Happily, August is the congressional recess, when your congressional representatives are supposed to be home in their districts meeting with constituents and getting up to speed on issues impacting their communities. You can always call your congressional representative’s DC phone number, but during August, consider contacting their district office. Here’s a list of congressional district contacts.
More next week.
Love,
