NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 31: Families arrive for a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on July 31, 2026 in New York City. More than 1,400 migrant children across New York, including more than 700 in New York Ci …
A Houston-based law firm with previous ties to the Trump administration has been awarded a contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied children, according to a filing in the federal register.
Burke Law Group will be awarded $150 million for the one-year contract that begins Aug. 15.
According to the listing in the federal register, the contract was awarded without going through the standard bidding process.
Marcella Burke, one of the firm's founders, was a former Trump appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. The firm's website lists 26 employees across its eight offices, with only two listing immigration and asylum as a practice area.
Under the conditions of the contract, the law firm will provide legal services to unaccompanied minors who are under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agency averaged 1,796 children in their care for June, the most recent month of data. Since October 2025, the agency has averaged 1,908 children monthly.
The move comes after the federal government allowed a contract to expire Friday with a network of nearly 100 legal groups after not paying for their services for more than half a year, according to the Associated Press.
Legal services to unaccompanied minors
A 2008 anti-human trafficking law made it a requirement for the federal government to provide legal services for unaccompanied minors.
Until Friday, the contract with ORR was held by Acacia Center for Justice, who was first awarded a contract in 2023 after it was spun off from Vera Institute of Justice, which had held the government contract for the previous five years.
Acacia used a network of more than 100 legal service providers to counsel unaccompanied minors. The organization said it helped more than 20,000 children during its time.
Acacia, in a statement released Wednesday, said they had always met or exceeded the requirements of the ORR and believed that children must be represented by independent immigration attorneys.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the federal registry, the Burke Law Firm website, and the Acacia Center for Justice. Data on the number of children in ORR's care comes from the Office of Refuge Resettlement.