Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) in Washington, D.C., has announced a three-year, $3 million grant from Microsoft to help children who come to the United States without a parent or legal guardian find pro bono lawyers to represent them.

Each year, approximately 8,000 children who come alone to the United States are discovered by immigration officials and must find and pay for their own lawyers while facing deportation. Since it became operational in January 2009, KIND, which was launched with a $3 million gift from Microsoft in 2008, has assisted almost 1,900 children originating from more than 35 countries and trained more than 1,900 attorneys in its effort to build a national pool of lawyers for unaccompanied children in the U.S.

"This grant from Microsoft will help thousands of unaccompanied children who otherwise would have no representation in court proceedings," said KIND executive director Wendy Young. "Many of these children...need and deserve representation to help them make their claim for U.S. protection. Without representation, children with viable claims are often unable to make them and can be sent back to their home countries, where their well-being, or even their lives, may be in danger."