Texas Law Firm Drops Bid for $150M Migrant Child Contract
Burke Law Group withdrew from a federal contract to represent unaccompanied migrant children after immigrant advocacy groups questioned its qualifications.
A small Texas law firm has withdrawn from consideration for a $150 million federal contract to represent unaccompanied migrant children after immigrant advocacy groups raised concerns about its qualifications.
In a court filing Thursday, a Department of Health and Human Services official said Burke Law Group informed the agency it was withdrawing from consideration for the grant. ABC News had previously reported that the firm, which has ties to the Trump administration, was set to receive the contract.
Burke Law Group has 26 employees across eight offices, according to its website. The firm's attorneys did not initially list immigration law as a practice area but later updated the site to include it.
The contract, announced in a Federal Register notice, would have covered "legal orientation, legal consultation, and attorney-of-record representation services" for unaccompanied migrant children in immigration proceedings and hearings before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services while in government custody.
One of the firm's founders, Marcella Burke, is a former Trump appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. Another founding partner, Jeffrey Hall, was appointed and confirmed to an EPA role late last year. Burke Law Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After HHS announced its intent to award the contract last week, Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amika Center for Immigrant Rights, said on a press call it was "very odd" that HHS would give such a large sum to a firm he called "clearly unqualified" instead of continuing to work with nonprofits that have handled the work for nearly 20 years.
Since December 2023, the Acacia Center for Justice has held the prime contract with HHS for the Unaccompanied Children Program, overseeing subcontracts with more than 100 service providers representing more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children. An HHS spokesperson said the agency's Office of Refugee Resettlement offered Acacia a new contract requiring it to share data on who it represents, which Acacia refused. Legal providers have said the request involved confidential, legally privileged client data.
Acacia and its subcontracted groups have alleged that unaccompanied children and their sponsors have been targeted under the administration's immigration crackdown. In June, DHS agents visited the offices of several Washington-area nonprofits providing legal services to unaccompanied migrant children.
In Thursday's court filing, the HHS official said the agency is in the "final stages of negotiations with another potential successor contractor."
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
