DHS agents visit offices of several legal aid organizations that assist unaccompanied migrant children, groups say
DHS said it's "dedicated to locating" all the unaccompanied children in the U.S.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations on Thursday visited the offices of several Washington, D.C.-area nonprofit groups that provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, several groups told ABC News.
Representatives of two groups told ABC News that the agents did not present a warrant or a subpoena and were denied entry. The groups said it is unclear what the purpose of the visits was.
The nonprofits also said that officials with the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General were with the DHS agents.
"Kids in Need of Defense's U.S. Headquarters in Washington, DC, was among several U.S. legal service providers visited by Homeland Security Investigations agents and the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General as part of a coordinated operation targeting federal subcontractors who provide legal services to unaccompanied children," the group said in a statement.
"This HSI and HHS OIG operation is consistent with ongoing administration efforts targeting nonprofit organizations operating in the immigration space and undermining legal services for unaccompanied children seeking safety in the United States," said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense.
An official with a third group, Ayuda, told ABC News that HSI agents also did not present a warrant or a subpoena, and that staff "directed the agents to organizational leadership" and "did not provide client information, client-identifying information, documents, or billing records."
The reported visits by the agents came on the same day that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche held a press conference announcing efforts to crack down on so-called "supersponsors" who fraudulently seek to take custody of unaccompanied migrant children, as part of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown.
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for DHS did not confirm the agents' appearances at the offices, but said the agency "is dedicated to locating the 450,000 unaccompanied children that came in through the border under the Biden administration."
Immigration advocates and attorneys have disputed the figures shared by the Trump administration and Republicans about migrant children. The claims come from a DHS internal watchdog report from 2024 that found that ICE had not served notices to appear to more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children. The internal watchdog warned that in the prior five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children had failed to appear for their immigration court hearings, and ICE was "not able to account" for all of their whereabouts.
Last year, legal service providers sued the Trump administration after it cut funding to the groups that provide legal representation to tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children.
A judge later ordered the government to restore funding to the groups.
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