A group of attorneys filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the accelerated immigration process for unaccompanied migrant children, saying the Trump administration’s policies are unlawful.

Under President Donald Trump, unaccompanied migrant children have been increasingly forced to navigate a complicated and accelerated immigration process with dwindling help after the administration ended a long-standing contract for legal services this summer — and as administration officials try to wrap their cases at an unprecedented pace.

“This is not the immigration process that Congress intended for unaccompanied children; it is a deportation assembly line depriving them of their rights,” the lawsuit states. Thursday’s lawsuit was filed by six legal service providers who work with unaccompanied migrant kids.

It focuses on unaccompanied migrant children who are residing with family in the US or are detained, either after recently crossing the US southern border or because their guardians were picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detained children are held in shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with their care.

CNN previously reported that children are contending with a fast-tracked immigration process, including abruptly rescheduled asylum interviews, sometimes with only a 24-hour notice — and increasingly without legal help. Migrant children as young as 2 are also showing up at immigration courts nationwide, many without attorneys, to make their case to stay in the US and avoid deportation.

Like adults, children must also go through immigration proceedings and present evidence to back up their asylum claim, and there’s no requirement for them to have legal representation throughout the process.

According to attorneys, asylum interviews have been abruptly pushed up.

“Since August 1, 2026, Plaintiffs have collectively received more than 600 notices of asylum interviews scheduled to take place in quick succession. Their attorneys are expected to represent children in multiple asylum interviews on the same day, sometimes at the same time, forcing them to forgo preparation and severely limiting their ability to effectively represent their unaccompanied child clients,” the lawsuit states.

“For these children, who risk being sent back to the countries they fled, the stakes could not be higher,” it continues.

The lawsuit calls for a return to the status quo — for example, when children were given at least 21 days notice prior to their asylum interview — and cites a federal law that’s been in place for nearly two decades, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, that’s supposed to provide protections for unaccompanied migrant children.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

The Trump administration has previously denied claims that cases are being fast-tracked, arguing that officials prioritize timely completion of cases. And in a statement to CNN last month, an HHS spokesperson said, “ORR will continue facilitating the ability of [unaccompanied alien children] in its custody to fully participate in immigration legal proceedings with representation by counsel, including hearings before EOIR immigration judges, who manage their own juvenile case dockets and schedules and make independent decisions on asylum claims under consideration.” (CNN)