In the United States, the Trump administration asked the Texas Indigent Defense Commission to help provide legal services for immigrant children facing deportation. The request puts those children, Texas legal-defense institutions, and federal and state agencies involved in immigration proceedings in the same policy framework.

Providing counsel could strengthen children's due-process protections, while the arrangement could also widen state involvement in federal deportation enforcement; the framework has been described as “unprecedented,” and its legality was “asked to look into.”