(OSV News) – A legal aid ministry of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, that serves tens of thousands has exhausted its reserves after seven months of not receiving payment from the federal government for its program that represents unaccompanied immigrant children.
"They've been completely depleted by the current situation," Melissa Lopez said July 20. She is executive director of Estrella del Paso, which used to be Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, or DMRS, the provider of legal services in West Texas and New Mexico for clients mainly from Latin America.
DMRS started out as a collaboration between the El Paso Diocese and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in response to the 1986 amnesty program for those in the country without authorization. The agency came under subcontract with the government to give legal representation to unaccompanied minors under a congressional mandate. And payment was very regular, noted Lopez. The ministry became an independent nonprofit in 1990 and was renamed Estrella del Paso in 2023.
Estrella del Paso and other legal services for unaccompanied migrant children in March 2025 sued the departments of Health and Human Services and Interior, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement over withdrawing funding for this service. A federal judge ordered a temporary injunction that made the departments continue paying for the services, which for Estrella del Paso amounts to approximately $900,000 owed so far. That will increase after the end of July, Lopez said.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínes-Olguín ordered the plaintiffs July 16 to meet with the federal government to come to terms over the unpaid amounts before the next hearing on July 23, according to Lopez.
Apart from the money owed, the continuation of the contract with the government is unknown. Lopez said it is up for renewal at the end of July, but the current situation makes the fate of their services even more uncertain. Because of this, she told OSV News, the team at Estrella del Paso on July 17 made the decision to no longer accept unaccompanied children's cases. However, they will continue work on the several hundred cases they hold.
When asked if the agency would have to shut its doors, Lopez, a 19-year employee, said, "Not if I have something to do with it. But that's certainly something that I think we would be naive not to be considering."
"We are in a very precarious position of potentially being in default on our obligations," she said. "If we can't pay our staff, then there's nobody to provide services. That is our most significant obligation, salaries and benefits. But we also have obligations to our landlord and to paying for our … overhead costs."
While, until recently, the office helped about 6,500 minors yearly, vetting whether they would need representation and then providing it if needed, it also helps those in deportation proceedings, refugees seeking asylum and migrants escaping domestic violence, among other services.
But Lopez said that last year the government cut grants of more than $2 million for two other programs for unaccompanied children: the immigration court help desk and orientation on the legal system.
The agency's minor clients are mainly teenagers, she said.
"My expectation is that children should be treated with extra special care and concern. And then, on top of it (is) the fact that we are talking about children who have been traumatized," Lopez said.
Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, president of Estrella del Paso's board, said people have asked him why parents would allow their children to travel to this country alone, oftentimes making perilous border crossings.
"The answer that I give is because they love them so much. People need to understand that it is a tremendous sacrifice, an act of love to let the ones that you love most in the world leave you," he explained to OSV News.
"But they allow it" because of what could happen if they stay, he said. "Because they say, 'My child will probably die.' Or at least, if it's a girl, she will be subject to rape and abuse, if it's a boy, they will be co-opted into the gang, and forced to kill people, and to suffer the consequences of that lifestyle," he said.
Bishop Seitz also pointed to dire poverty and minors crossing the border with the idea of finding work to help their family as additional driving factors for children arriving in the U.S. unaccompanied.
He said, "Any immigrant that crosses should be vetted. And it should be determined whether they have a claim, a reason that returning would be dangerous to them or what the circumstances are."
"That's what these court proceedings are supposed to be about. We're not against the court proceedings. We're against proceedings that don't give the kids a chance to make their case, that don't allow them due process according to our laws," explained Bishop Seitz.
The communications director for Estrella del Paso told OSV News that "out of an abundance of caution," the agency's clients do not speak with the media and remain hesitant even if anonymity is offered.
Under President Donald Trump's current immigration crackdown, the fear is not just on the part of migrants. Even donors are wary, said Lopez. She said she has been on a donor drive this summer.
Still, she said, "we've had incredibly brave" donors come forward in the last month.
Also, Lopez is heartened by the staff's dedication, even with positions left unfilled and the threat of possible layoffs.
"Their number one question is 'what happens to my clients? What happens to the children… if we're not here,'" she said. "I think that's the pretty amazing thing about this whole situation, is despite that this could have very real consequences on our team, their personal life, they're still laser focused on the people that we serve."
