The Trump administration awarded a $150 million contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group to provide legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children, bypassing competitive bidding in a move that's raising concerns about both fiscal accountability and the quality of legal services. The year-long contract starts August 15.
The contract notice described Burke's arrangement as a "single source cooperative agreement," meaning the administration selected the firm without a competitive bidding process. It didn't offer a justification for bypassing standard bidding rules that typically ensure taxpayers get the best value for their money.
The Firm's Background
Only two of the 25 lawyers listed on the firm's website Wednesday morning claimed relevant experience in immigration law in their biographies. Many of the others at the firm are corporate lawyers with ties to conservative causes and to President Trump. The firm's founder, Marcella Burke, served in Trump's first administration as a lawyer in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. Others on the roster include Justin Shubow, described as the leading supporter of Trump's efforts to require federal buildings to adhere to classical and traditional architectural styles and a former Trump appointee to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and Ilya Shapiro, listed as a "senior counsel."
The contract came as the Trump administration ramped up its mass deportation campaign and after it let a key contract with a network of legal groups working with immigrant children around the country expire with no replacement. Michael Lukens, who heads the Amica Center, called the sole-source award "upsetting and shocking." He said, "It really does forebode a situation where children are going to get no meaningful due process, no meaningful day in court. We cannot have a random law firm entrusted to take care of children." Lukens said there are currently about 1,800 children living in shelters and roughly 22,000 living outside with sponsors, such as family members.
Legal Requirements and Previous System
The government is required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to facilitate legal representation for children put into deportation proceedings. Until recently, that work was carried out by nearly 100 legal aid providers across the country that provided know-your-rights trainings to children in shelters and directly represented them in court proceedings. Last Friday marked the last day of that contract, and until late Tuesday it wasn't clear if a new contract would be put in place or who would do the work.
Legal aid providers have struggled to get repaid for work they've already done since last November, and the administration is asking for detailed information about their clients that they say they're not ethically able to provide. Legal advocates have also seen other trends that worry them, including courts starting in April to call dozens of cases at once in so-called "rocket dockets" and immigrant children having hearings moved up and given less time to prepare.
Confusion in Courtrooms
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency responsible for overseeing unaccompanied migrant children, sent emails late Tuesday to lawyers representing migrant children in federal custody. The emails asked for clients' personal identification numbers and requested that lawyers respond within four hours confirming they would appear to represent their clients in upcoming hearings. It wasn't immediately clear why the administration was making such requests.
Attorneys in courtrooms across the country said their hearings were interrupted by lawyers claiming they'd been asked by the Trump administration to take over the children's cases without prior notice. At a hearing in Chicago Wednesday morning for unaccompanied detained immigrant children, an attorney who didn't represent any of the children appeared via video stream and said she was with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a legal aid group. She said the organization had been contacted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to "appear on behalf" of children without legal representation due to a "gap in legal services," and that it had received the children's private information, including their names and identifying numbers, from the federal government. The judge said that since all the children already had lawyers, he wasn't going to allow anyone to watch on the video stream, and the outside attorney dropped off. Laura Smith, an attorney representing some of the children, said, "It sounds like this is a person who has my client's information." Alexa Sendukas, the managing attorney at the Galveston Houston Immigrant Representation Project, said one of her organization's attorneys witnessed similar confusion in Houston and that her organization had heard of similar situations in other courtrooms across the country.
Why This Matters:
The $150 million no-bid contract raises fundamental questions about government contracting practices and fiscal responsibility. Competitive bidding exists to ensure taxpayers receive quality services at fair prices, and bypassing this process without clear justification undermines public trust in government procurement. The abrupt transition from nearly 100 experienced legal aid providers to a single firm with limited immigration law experience creates operational risks that could compromise the efficiency of deportation proceedings. If children don't receive adequate legal representation, cases may face appeals and delays that burden the court system and increase long-term costs. The administration's enforcement priorities require functional legal processes to maintain legitimacy and ensure that deportation orders withstand judicial scrutiny. A chaotic transition threatens both the rule of law and the government's ability to execute its immigration policies effectively.