HHS Hands a $150 Million Child-Migrant Legal Contract to a Houston Firm Founded by Former Trump Appointees

The Department of Health and Human Services is awarding a $150 million contract for legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children to Burke Law Group, a Houston firm, according to a Federal Register notice reported on Aug. 4, 2026. The one-year agreement is set to begin Aug. 15. Co-founder Marcella Burkey is a former Trump appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, and Jeffrey Hall, a former employee and founding partner, was confirmed to an EPA position late last year.

The award follows the expiration on Friday of the government's contract with a network of nearly 100 legal services organizations that had gone unpaid for more than half a year; reporting has put the number of children affected by that lapse in the tens of thousands. Replacing a distributed nonprofit network with a single firm whose founders held political appointments in the same administration raises questions about both procurement and the independence of counsel representing children in proceedings the government is prosecuting.

The notice had not yet published as of the reporting, and the contract had not begun. HHS has not detailed how one firm will cover the caseload nationwide.