As Trump continues to test the extent of his power, systematically going after the most vulnerable population in our country, and those who defend them, he is now pushing the limits to attorney ethics. This flippant abuse of power and attacks to decades of precedent is putting bar licenses and more importantly the lives of children at risk. Unaccompanied migrant children arrive at our border alone, fleeing dangerous situations, and remain one of the most isolated and vulnerable groups of people in this country. The Trump administration has decided to exploit their position by threatening their access to legal representation and making it impossible for their attorneys to act in their interests. We should be very worried about these children, and about what this means for the U.S. legal profession’s ideals of public service and zealous representation of clients. For eight months, Trump directed his Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under Health and Human Services (HHS) to withhold $65 million in completed legal services for these children until a court order recently forced them to issue payments. He held the funds hostage hoping to barter for confidential information about the vulnerable clients represented by Acacia Center for Justice and its network of nearly 100 legal service providers across the country. This demand for confidential information is illegal, asks attorneys to violate their most fundamental ethical duties, and puts children at risk of being trafficked, abused, and exploited by our very government. The network’s spine to stand up to Trump cost them as some offices had to close their doors entirely. https://americasvoicecnn.substack.com/p/hhs-is-making-it-impossible-for-lawyers