The Trump administration has awarded a controversial anti-human trafficking organization a no-bid $158 million contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, according to a notice posted Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Utah-based Our Rescue, previously known as Operation Underground Railroad, says it helps law enforcement perform sting operations to catch human traffickers and rescue survivors. It's unclear if it has immigration lawyers on its staff, although its website says it offers "legal support to help prosecute offenders." Our Rescue did not immediately return NPR's request for comment.
The group was founded by activist Tim Ballard, who was the subject of the 2023 film Sound of Freedom. The movie starring Jim Caviezel was heavily promoted in conservative media as QAnon conspiracies flourished.
Within months of the film's release, however, Ballard faced accusations of sexual exploitation himself. He has repeatedly denied them, but was quietly removed from the group. It's now headed by CEO Derek Benner, who previously worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a statement to NPR, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) said the contract will run for six months, from Aug. 7 to February 6, 2027. The agency said it is working with other providers besides Our Rescue, including the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
"ORR is committed to ensuring every (unaccompanied immigrant child) has legal representation in immigration court," an ORR spokesperson told NPR Wednesday.
Michael Lukens, the executive director of the nonprofit organization Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, on Wednesday blasted HHS's decision to award Our Rescue the contract.
His organization provided legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children under the previous contract.
"HHS is trying to give a contract to a nonprofit that is highly problematic in their history and has no expertise in providing legal services to unaccompanied children," Lukens told NPR. "This all to me boils down to children are going to be harmed and that seems to be the point of a lot of these actions."
There are currently about 24,000 immigrant children in the U.S. who are classified by the federal government as unaccompanied, but only 1,800 are in custody of HHS. The agency defines them as minors who have no lawful immigration status in the U.S. and who have "no parent or legal guardian in the U.S. available to provide care and physical custody."
The contract with Our Rescue was granted a week after a contract with a group of nearly 100 legal nonprofits to do similar work expired on July 31. The expiration left attorneys scrambling to figure out how to ensure the minors continued to have legal representation.
In a statement to NPR, ORR said it has been using the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) to provide legal representation to all unaccompanied immigrant children in ORR care since Aug. 5. That organization will provide legal services until Dec. 31.
But that's not a solution, Lukens said.
"HHS is causing chaos in the system, and that may be on purpose," Lukens said. "They let a contract expire. They don't have any long term contract in place. They're trying to do these sort of gap-fillers while also reaching out to unqualified organizations about serving the children."
Lukens said Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and other nonprofits continue providing legal representation for their unaccompanied minor clients despite not being paid. He said it is the only way to ensure continuity in legal representation for the minors.
The Trump administration had stopped paying the legal nonprofits — including Lukens' back in November, when lawyers refused to turn over confidential information about the children they represented.
Lukens said that information was covered by attorney-client privilege, and that the nonprofits decided to not apply for a new contract because of those concerns.
Trump administration chooses organizations with GOP ties
This latest development builds on a pattern of granting contracts to people with administration ties.
Our Rescue's current CEO Derek Benner served as executive director of the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations during the first Trump administration.
Last week, the administration posted a notice on the federal registry announcing its intent to give Burke Law Group, a small Texas law firm, up to $150 million to represent unaccompanied immigrant children in government custody.
However, Burke Law Group withdrew from the process and will no longer get the contact after NPR and other news outlets reported on its ties to the Trump administration and lack of experience in immigration matters.
A co-founder of Burke Law Group, Marcella Burke, served in the first Trump administration in both the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Jeffrey Hall, a founding partner, currently serves as an assistant administrator at the EPA.
In a post on X Tuesday, Burke Law Group said they "were approached by the Trump administration to fill a gap in legal services and we were considering how we might help." But, the firm said it had "decided not to apply for a grant or a contract" with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
A spokesperson with ORR confirmed Burke Law Group's decision. The agency told NPR it had intended to enter into a cooperative agreement with the law firm, which the agency said had "a strong geographic presence in Texas."
But the Houston-based company specializes in advising "companies on complex environmental, regulatory, and enforcement matters," according to its website. Only two of the firm's 24 attorneys specialize in immigration and asylum cases.
The proposed contract for Burke Law Group would have only covered about 1,800 children in HHS shelters, a nonprofit that represented the minors told reporters last week.
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