Wyden, Garcia Launch Inquiry into Shady Groups Awarded $394 Million in Contracts by Trump Administration to Represent Unaccompanied Minors
Top Dems warn of political motivation behind no-bid contracts to organizations lacking immigration law experience
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Robert Garcia (CA-42) today pressed two organizations with close ties to the Trump administration that were recently awarded no-bid contracts valued up to $394 million by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to handle legal representation and immigration cases of unaccompanied migrant children, despite a clear lack of experience by the organizations in handling sensitive immigration legal cases.
“These corrupt contracts are part of Donald Trump’s ongoing effort to deny unaccompanied kids the legal representation they desperately need and deserve. Lining the pockets of his buddies with taxpayer dollars is bad enough, but doing it at the cost of putting young children in harm’s way of human trafficking and other horrific abuse is craven, even by the standards of this administration,” said Wyden.
"The Trump Administration is corruptly awarding massive no-bid contracts for the legal representation of vulnerable children to unqualified organizations, including histories of sexual misconduct and shady financial dealings. Senator Wyden and I are demanding answers and accountability, and fighting to get these children the fair representation they deserve," said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a single-source cooperative agreement of up to $150 million to Burke Law Group, PLLC, a Houston-based commercial and environmental litigation firm with deep personal and financial ties to the administration. Burke Law Group, PLLC has since publicly withdrawn from consideration.
It then awarded a sole-source contract of $158.1 million, with a total contract value of up to $244 million, to Our Rescue, a Minneapolis-based non-profit which purports to be an anti-trafficking organization. Our Rescue was founded by Tim Ballard, a self-described former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, who resigned from the organization in 2023 following complaints of sexual assault and harassment from female employees.
Wyden and Garcia also pressed the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants on an additional agreement of up to $20 million to provide legal services through at least December 2026 under what ORR has described to a federal court as an interim legal-services model.
In July, Wyden sounded the alarm on the Trump administration’s plan to withhold funding for legal representation for children held in the custody of the ORR.
Since Trump took office, Wyden has documented the systematic reorientation of ORR from a child welfare agency into an operational adjunct of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s mass deportation agenda and has spotlighted numerous attempts by the administration to undermine the rights and well-being of children in federal care.
The letter to Burke Law Group is here.
The Letter to Our Rescue is here.
The letter to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants is here.
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