A small Houston-based law firm with ties to the Trump administration is reportedly set to receive a $150 million no-bid federal contract to provide legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children — a move that has one Democratic lawmaker crying "corruption."
The Office of Refugee Resettlement intends to award the profitable contract to Burke Law Group, a firm co-founded by former Trump appointee Marcella Burke and with only two immigration attorneys on the books, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
"Trump is handing $150M to a law firm led by a former appointee," responded Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX). "[It's] now trusted to represent 20,000 immigrant kids. Corruption — and you’re paying for it."
The move comes after the Trump administration last week allowed the previous legal representation contract to expire, leaving roughly 24,000 children who crossed the southern border without a parent in limbo over their access to counsel.
The size and nature of the award have drawn sharp criticism from immigrant advocacy groups.
Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which provides legal representation to immigrant children in the Washington, D.C. area, said on a call with reporters that the firm was "clearly unqualified" for the task.
He noted that the organizations that previously held these contracts had nearly two decades of experience representing unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings, a stark contrast to Burke Law Group's limited immigration law presence.
The lapse in the prior contract has already created uncertainty for thousands of children navigating the immigration court system without guaranteed legal counsel, a population advocates say is particularly vulnerable given the complexity of immigration law and the high stakes of deportation proceedings.
Legal representation has historically been shown to significantly affect outcomes in immigration cases, particularly for children who may not otherwise understand the proceedings against them.
"Children facing deportation deserve experienced counsel focused on their clients’ best interests, not lawyers operating under a system clouded by questions about political connections, qualifications, and government interference," said Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Neither the Office of Refugee Resettlement nor Burke Law Group responded to requests for comment on the awarding of the contract or the qualifications of the firm to handle a caseload of this scale.
The no-bid nature of the contract, combined with Burke's ties to the administration through her prior appointments, is likely to raise additional questions from lawmakers and watchdog groups about the process used to select a firm with limited apparent immigration law experience for a contract of this size and importance.
