(WASHINGTON) — Congressional Democrats are pressing federal health officials following the government’s decision to end a contract with legal advocacy groups that provide legal representation to migrant children.
In a letter sent Monday to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, lawmakers raised concerns over the government’s efforts to award new federal contracts to politically connected firms that they say lack immigration experience.
The 63 lawmakers wrote that they are “gravely concerned that ORR would entrust a vulnerable population with firms so plainly unqualified for the task.”
The letter comes after HHS last month awarded a controversial anti-human trafficking organization a no-bid $158 million contract to provide legal services to migrant children.
Utah-based Our Rescue, previously known as Operation Underground Railroad, was founded by activist Tim Ballard, who resigned in 2023 amid allegations of misconduct, which he denied in a statement posted through one of his organizations.
Our Rescue, according to the group of lawmakers, “does not list legal services among its primary functions.”
“Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, ORR is required to provide confidential and qualified legal consultation to unaccompanied children,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, Our Rescue does not list legal services among its primary functions, and it is unlikely to have the needed infrastructure and legal expertise to properly provide legal representation for thousands of children across the country.”
Currently, Our Rescue is run by Derek Benner, a former DHS official from the first Trump administration.
“If ORR proceeds with this contract, ORR will be gambling with the legal fate of thousands of children on an organization that has not clearly demonstrated it can do this work,” the lawmakers wrote.
In a statement, an HHS spokesperson called Our Rescue “a premier organization focused on combatting human trafficking globally.”
“Not only do they understand the crime, but they understand the foreign populations who have been preyed upon by criminal networks and who profit from exploiting vulnerable populations,” the HHS statement said. “As such, they are perfectly positioned to understand and recognize if or when an unaccompanied child has been victimized and will have the legal representation to pursue any immigration avenues available.”
The lawmakers, in their letter, also pointed to a notice from HHS that announced its intent to award a $150 million contract to a small Texas law firm founded by a former Trump appointee. Burke Law Group withdrew from consideration for the contract after lawmakers and advocacy groups raised concerns that the firm did not have experience representing migrant children.
“The withdrawal underscores our concerns with how your agency is handling these contracts and award process,” the lawmakers wrote. “These children are a uniquely vulnerable population whose needs and case complexities require highly specialized expertise.”
The letter from the lawmakers, which include Rep. Joaquin Castro and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, asks Kennedy and ORR for information regarding the contract with Our Rescue and whether the agencies plan to award additional contracts in support of migrant children.
“Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population in the immigration system,” Rep. Castro told ABC News. “We have a moral and statutory duty to provide them with quality legal representation. The Trump administration’s attempt to cut out longstanding providers who are equipped to handle these cases jeopardized the well-being of children.”
Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights — which used to receive funding through a government contract that was terminated — said that “nonprofits are doing their best to keep the lights on and to help as many unaccompanied children as possible.”
“Since the Trump administration took the unprecedented action of letting the contract for children’s legal services expire with no plan in place for more than 20,000 kids, we have seen an equally unprecedented attack on immigrant children,” he told ABC News.
Immigrant advocacy groups have alleged that unaccompanied children and their sponsors are among those being targeted under the administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
In June, DHS agents visited the offices of several Washington-area nonprofit organizations that provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children.
Last year, ABC News reported that the administration was directing immigration agents to track down unaccompanied migrant children in the United States.
“We are seeing children being bullied in court to take self-deportation and other children showing up without any counsel, even though the government is mandated to provide them with an attorney,” Lukens said. “Unaccompanied immigrant children need meaningful and expert advocacy through the court system, not political games.”
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