The Trump administration awarded a $150 million contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group, a firm with deep ties to the administration and minimal experience in immigration law, to provide legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children. This year-long contract, set to begin August 15, bypasses standard competitive bidding processes. The administration designated it a "single source cooperative agreement," offering no public justification for this exemption.
Profiteering from Crisis
The Burke Law Group's website listed only two of its 25 lawyers with relevant immigration law experience as of Wednesday morning. Many others are corporate lawyers, connected to conservative causes and President Trump. Marcella Burke, the firm's founder, previously served as a lawyer in Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior. Justin Shubow, a leading supporter of Trump’s architectural style mandates and a former Trump appointee, is also on the roster. Ilya Shapiro is listed as a "senior counsel."
This lucrative contract emerged as the Trump administration intensified its mass deportation campaign. It also followed the expiration of a crucial contract with a national network of nearly 100 legal groups that had been providing legal aid to immigrant children. Michael Lukens, who heads the Amica Center, called the sole-source award "upsetting and shocking." He warned, "It really does forebode a situation where children are going to get no meaningful due process, no meaningful day in court." Lukens emphasized the danger of entrusting children's care to a "random law firm." Currently, approximately 1,800 children reside in shelters, with roughly 22,000 living outside with sponsors.
The State's Hand in Wage Suppression and Due Process Erosion
The government is legally obligated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to facilitate legal representation for children in deportation proceedings. Until recently, this mandate was fulfilled by legal aid providers across the country, who conducted know-your-rights trainings and represented children in court. Their contract ended last Friday, leaving a critical gap in services. These established legal aid providers have faced significant financial hardship, struggling to receive repayment for work completed since last November. The administration has also demanded detailed client information that these providers ethically cannot furnish.
Legal advocates have observed other alarming trends. Courts began implementing so-called "rocket dockets" in April, calling dozens of cases at once. Immigrant children's hearings have been moved up, granting them less time to prepare their defense. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency overseeing unaccompanied migrant children, sent emails late Tuesday demanding clients’ personal identification numbers. These emails required lawyers to confirm their appearance in upcoming hearings within four hours, without clear justification for such urgent requests.
Undermining Legal Protections
Courtrooms nationwide experienced interruptions from lawyers claiming to have been asked by the Trump administration to take over children’s cases without prior notice. At a Chicago hearing Wednesday morning for unaccompanied detained immigrant children, an attorney appeared via video stream, stating she was with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. She claimed ORR contacted her organization to "appear on behalf" of children lacking legal representation due to a "gap in legal services." She also stated her organization received private client information, including names and identifying numbers, from the federal government. The judge, noting all children already had lawyers, disallowed her participation. Laura Smith, an attorney representing some of the children, stated, "It sounds like this is a person who has my client’s information." Alexa Sendukas, managing attorney at the Galveston Houston Immigrant Representation Project, reported similar confusion in Houston and other courtrooms across the country.