Our Rescue awarded $158 million federal contract to represent unaccompanied migrant children

The Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $158 million federal contract to Our Rescue, tasking the nonprofit with legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children in deportation proceedings. Our Rescue, founded by Tim Ballard, is currently embroiled in a 2024 federal lawsuit filed by five women alleging sex trafficking and forced labor, a case that has not yet been resolved.

After Ballard stepped down in 2023, former ICE Homeland Security Investigations chief Derek Benner assumed leadership of the organization. The award diverges from the historic pattern of contracting well-known immigrant-advocacy groups for such services. Earlier in August, HHS awarded a comparable $150 million contract to the Burke Law Group, a small Texas firm headed by former Trump administration appointee Marcella Burke.

Unaccompanied children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border are transferred to HHS facilities before being placed in removal proceedings, where they often wait years for a court hearing. Over 500,000 such children entered the United States during the Biden administration, creating a substantial backlog of cases.