The Trump administration has started sending a majority of unaccompanied immigrant children—those who arrived in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian and are in immigration court cases—to Texas. These children are being placed in shelters that are not licensed by the state, have limited access to legal representation, and may be heading to facilities designed for deportation processing, according to The Guardian. Analysis by the immigration data platform bklg.org shows that nearly 80% of unaccompanied children in federal custody who entered immigration court in July and over 90% in August were sent to Texas. This marks a sharp increase from earlier months and currently involves around 925 children in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with over 650 sent to Texas in just July and August. The sudden shift to sending these vulnerable children to Texas, a state with a Republican-led government and strong conservative policies, has raised concerns among immigrant rights advocates. They worry about the children’s treatment and their ability to access due process under U.S. law. Critics fear this move could be the beginning of a larger effort to apprehend immigrant children from across the country and concentrate them in Texas for possible deportation. Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, described some of the facilities as “deportation processing centers” where legal representation may be more symbolic than real. Unaccompanied children often arrive in the U.S. fleeing abuse, neglect, or trafficking, and are placed under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of HHS. These children are not managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is responsible for adult immigrants. As of late July, more than 1,800 unaccompanied children were in ORR’s care across the country. However, over 60% of those still in detention with active immigration court cases are now in Texas, compared to fewer than half in June. This shift has occurred despite Texas’s refusal to license ORR’s care providers, which has reduced oversight and protections for the children. Many of these children—ranging from toddlers to teenagers—are navigating the U.S. immigration system without legal representation. Nationally, only about 31.7% of children in ORR custody with active court cases have had a legal representative file on their behalf. In Texas, the rate is even lower, with just 8.7% in San Antonio having legal representation. Advocates argue that this lack of legal support puts children at risk and calls for greater oversight and legal aid. Meanwhile, ORR officials have sought contracts for emergency facilities capable of housing up to 3,000 children, despite current shelter capacity being only about 27%. Critics question the need for such large-scale facilities, especially given the low number of unaccompanied children arriving at the border in recent years.