The Trump administration awarded a $158 million contract to a nonprofit to provide legal services for unaccompanied minors, a federal contracting database shows.
The Department of Health and Human Services awarded the one-year contract to Our Rescue, with a start date of Aug. 7 and the possibility of extension until Feb. 6, 2028. The grant was awarded by DHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the care of unaccompanied undocumented children.
It’s unclear if Our Rescue has previously provided legal services to minors, and the group did not respond to a question from NOTUS about its legal experience. The group’s website does not list immigration litigation as a primary function.
It’s the second time this month that the Trump administration has awarded a contract for assisting minors in immigration cases to a firm outside of the advocacy groups that have previously handled such services.
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Derek Benner, Our Rescue’s CEO, is a former ICE official. He told NOTUS in a statement that facilitating legal support to unaccompanied minors aligns with the organization’s mission.
“These are among the most vulnerable children in the world, and they deserve nothing less than the full weight of our experience,” Benner said. “We welcome this responsibility of working on their behalf.”
Tim Ballard, who founded Our Rescue in 2013, is a former ICE agent who was accused of sex trafficking and forced labor in lawsuits, which were later dismissed. The movie “Sound of Freedom” was inspired by his work supposedly combating sex trafficking.
Ballard abruptly resigned from the organization in 2023, shortly before the allegations were made public.
The federal government has allocated just over $158 million toward the contract, with a potential award amount of up to $244 million. It is the first award Our Rescue has landed with the federal government, per the federal contracting database.
The contract comes a little over a week after the federal government revealed plans to award a $150 million contract to Burke Law Group, a small Houston-based law firm, also to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children.
The head of Burke Law Group, Marcella Burke, was a Trump appointee in his first administration. On Tuesday, HHS told Law360 that no grant had been finalized, but that it had “been in touch” with the firm.
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