The United States Government plans to award a contract of up to $150 million for the legal representation of immigrant children to a small Texas firm specializing in environmental and regulatory law, which has only two lawyers dedicated to immigration cases.
The contract, which would go into effect on August 15 with a duration of one year, will replace the one that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) had with Acacia Center for Justice, a network of nonprofit organizations whose agreement was not renewed.
Burke Law Group, based in Houston, has 26 people on staff and, according to its website, only two of them practice immigration law, in addition to other areas.
Organizations question the decision
The choice of the firm provoked rejection from the organizations that make up the Acacia network and that for years have been responsible for supporting and legally representing unaccompanied immigrant children, as minors who entered the United States alone under Government custody are known.
The Administration attempted to terminate the contract with Acacia before its expiration and, according to those responsible for several of these organizations, it has not disbursed the committed federal funds for months.
In response, the organizations sued the federal government to seek some $65 million in overdue bills for their services.
In a call with journalists this Wednesday, Michael Lukens, director of the Amica Center, one of the plaintiff organizations, assured that the network supports and legally represents more than 24,000 immigrant children throughout the country.
“It is very strange that the Government, whose mission is to protect minors and by law must give them legal support, has chosen to give this enormous amount of money to a firm that is clearly not qualified, instead of continuing to support organizations that have done so for years,” Lukens said.
Current legal obligation
Activists maintain that the decision to end the contract with Acacia responds to the Government's desire to accelerate deportations and prevent minors from accessing due process.
Alexa Sendukas, a lawyer for the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, which has represented about 500 minors, assured that the shelters and government centers that welcome them receive more immigrants every day, and that the majority "come from the interior of the country" and not from the border.
“Immigration processes are being accelerated and they do not have the opportunity to tell their story or request protection,” he added.
The federal government has been obligated since 2008 to provide legal representation to unaccompanied minors in ORR custody. However, in the United States immigration processes are civil in nature, so children do not have the right to a public defender and can appear alone before an immigration judge.
