On Friday, the administration ended a federal contract that provided 26,000 unaccompanied migrant minors with legal representation, reports Clara Harter of the Los Angeles Times.

Last month the administration halted all work under this contract but reversed the decision within days. Its cancellation leaves around 100 legal aid organizations scrambling for next steps, Harter points out.

The new announcement was made via a memo from the Interior Department, as first reported by Laura Romero at ABC News.

In Arizona, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP) is scrambling to continue their services for unaccompanied migrant children amid funding cuts, reports Alisa Reznick at KJZZ.

Legal representatives will still have funding to provide Know Your Rights training and information, but they warn about the complex court proceedings children would face alone.

"[Ending legal services] is a very concerning, shocking situation, and people should be outraged," said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, FIRRP’s deputy director. "It's impossible to imagine how a child as young as 6 months old or 3 years old would be able to retain an attorney on their own."

Separately, the federal government is looking to bring back detention centers for unaccompanied migrant children, report Fola Akinnibi and Rachel Adams-Heard of Bloomberg.

The Department of Health and Human Services opened a request for information on Secure Care Placement services for Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) to house minors between the ages of 13 and 17 years, Bloomberg notes.

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Clara Villatoro, the Forum’s assistant VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Soledad Gassó Parker, Dan Gordon, Broc Murphy and Becka Wall. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

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