A small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration will be awarded a $150 million no-bid contract to represent unaccompanied migrant children in their immigration court proceedings, according to a notice set to publish in the Federal Register on Thursday.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees shelters for unaccompanied children and is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, intends to give the contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group, the notice said.
The Trump administration last week allowed the previous contract for legal representation to expire, creating uncertainty for some 24,000 children who crossed the nation’s southern border without a parent.
One of the founders of the Burke Law Group, Marcella Burke, is a former Trump appointee at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. The company’s website lists two attorneys specializing in immigration and asylum among its 26 employees.
Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which provides children legal representation in the D.C. area, said on a call with reporters that the firm was “clearly unqualified.”
He said the previous groups who held contracts to represent immigrant children had nearly 20 years of experience.
ORR and the Burke Law Group did not respond to requests for comment.
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