Jacob Walters started the most gratifying work of his life after he retired.
At 76, the former zoning attorney and longtime Brookline resident now spends his hours volunteering in local probate courts representing immigrant children as he seeks to secure them a legal protection called Special Immigration Juvenile Status (SIJS).
It’s work that has gotten more challenging and complex as the Trump administration implements sweeping policy changes and harsh regulations amid an increasing push to crackdown on immigration. In the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members, the administration has rolled out a series of new measures further restricting avenues to legally immigrate.
The SIJS status is granted to children who have been “abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent,” and can provide a pathway to a green card.
Walters works as a volunteer attorney with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND ), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that “no child appears in immigration court without high-level representation,” said Paola Gentile-Goldental, managing director of KIND’s Boston office.
Walters was recently named KIND’s pro bono advocate of the year for the Boston area.
Through his work, Walters typically seeks guardianship or custody to place a child with a relative living in the United States while proving the children have faced abuse, neglect or abandonment, and if returning to their country of origin is not in their best interest.
“The need is huge,” Walters said.
Throughout this process, children often are forced to wait years for their immigration cases to be fully resolved, Walters and Gentile-Goldental said.
“These kids are kind of left in a limbo right now,” Gentile-Goldental said. “While they have approved classification…they are not able to continue to the next step in their immigration journey.”
In the past, those granted SIJS were automatically considered for deferred action, a classification that prevents deportation and provides eligibility for work authorization documents while waiting for visa approval.
However, that policy was rescinded in June by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, so some children remain in the U.S. without clear immigration status or protections.
For Walters, the policy shift is adding a new level of uncertainty to an already challenging process.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen down the road,” Walters said.
The children Walters represents often face devastating circumstances. In one case, Walters represented a child, now 15, whose mother died in childbirth and whose stepfather sexually abused her.
When neighbors discovered what was happening, they hid the child and contacted a relative in Boston who arranged for her to come to the United States.
“There was literally no one for her to go back to,” Walters said.
While Walters was able to help the young girl, her younger brother, around 4 or 5 years old, remains in a dangerous situation.
“The thing that I couldn’t do for her, which has kept me up nights — she had a little brother, and he was not being taken care of,” Walters said. “So it scares you can only do one thing at a time.”
Outside of the courtroom, Walters said fear has been permeating all aspects of his clients and their family’s lives.
“They have people who are hungry because they won’t go to the store, because they’re afraid they can’t leave their children,” Walters said. “Not only are these parents living in fear, but now the kids are in fear.”
Walters said the anti-immigration political climate, fueled by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, is creating an environment of fear. “There’s just a terror campaign,” he said.
KIND’s Boston office seeks to help counter that fear by providing free legal assistance and psychosocial support to unaccompanied children, Gentile Goldental said.
In the Boston office, around 85% of cases are handled by pro bono attorneys. The rest are handled by in-house attorneys, funded through private and public sources, including grants and donations. In 2024, she said, 670 children were presented by a team of 565 volunteer lawyers.
However, the organization faces funding instability. KIND had a contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Acacia Center for Justice, but in March the Trump administration cut the funding and issued a stop-work order.
Eleven legal aid groups that were part of the contract sued the Trump administration, arguing that the government failed to comply with a 2008 anti-trafficking law requiring legal counsel for unaccompanied minors.
A judge in April ordered the federal government to temporarily restore funding. The organization is now operating under a new contract that provides three-month funding extensions.
“In the short term, these option periods make planning more difficult, since we just don’t know what’s going to happen, but we continue to do everything we can to support our clients,” said Megan McKenna, KIND’s senior director of communications and public engagement.
While KIND tries to diversify its funding sources, Gentile-Goldental said misconceptions about why unaccompanied children immigrate to the U.S. remain widespread.
“People always think that other immigrants come here to take their jobs, and this is not true for many unaccompanied minors,” she said. “They come here because they face terrible situations at home.”
Walters and Gentile-Goldental said the public can help by offering time and resources. KIND needs volunteer attorneys and interpreters, and relies on donations.
“If you can help them, donate,” Walters said. “If you have time, give it to them.”
Despite the emotional toll of the work, Walters has no plans to stop volunteering with KIND.
“It brings me to my knees sometimes, what some of these kids go through,” Walters said. “It makes me want to do whatever I can to help.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.