Key Takeaways
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered HHS on Thursday to release roughly $65 million owed to legal aid groups representing unaccompanied immigrant children, with payment due by midday Friday and a sworn compliance declaration due hours later.
The order came a week after the government let the Acacia Center for Justice contract lapse on July 31, cutting off funding to nearly 100 legal providers and forcing layoffs at subcontractors like Estrella del Paso.
A Federal Register notice shows HHS plans to award a yearlong contract worth up to $150 million to the Burke Law Group, a Houston firm where only two of roughly two dozen listed attorneys claim immigration expertise.
A federal judge in California gave the Trump administration until midday Friday to pay for legal work it already received. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered the Office of Refugee Resettlement on Thursday to release roughly $65 million owed to groups that represent unaccompanied immigrant children, money withheld since December, per El Paso Matters. The order runs on an hourly clock, payment by noon, withheld funds including $765,000 for the El Paso nonprofit Estrella del Paso by 1 p.m., and a declaration confirming the release by 2 p.m.
The order enforces a ruling Martinez-Olguin issued last year requiring the government to keep funding the program. Instead, HHS let its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice expire on July 31, cutting off the nearly 100 organizations that represent children through it. Estrella del Paso shut down its unaccompanied children's program last week and laid off 13 employees while still carrying 243 active cases. "We have now completely used up all of our savings," executive director Melissa Lopez told the Christian Science Monitor.
The replacement plan raises its own questions. A Federal Register notice shows HHS intends to award a yearlong contract worth up to $150 million to the Burke Law Group, a Houston firm whose founder served at the EPA and the Interior Department, and where only two of about two dozen attorneys listed on its site claim immigration expertise. HHS says it agrees the children need representation and is pursuing multiple acquisition options. The standoff traces to the agency demanding confidential client-level data that Acacia says it cannot legally share.
The deadline makes this a same-day accountability test. We reported last week that the contract's expiration left roughly 26,000 children without lawyers, and the data demand at the center of it follows the same pattern as the DHS request for welfare records that 24 states are now suing to block.
People Also Ask
What did the judge order HHS to pay?
Roughly $65 million owed since December to legal aid groups subcontracted through the Acacia Center for Justice, due by midday Friday, August 7, along with $765,000 owed to Estrella del Paso and a sworn declaration confirming the funds were released.
Who is the Burke Law Group?
A Houston firm founded by Marcella Burke, who served at the EPA and the Interior Department during the first Trump administration. It is best known for energy and environmental work, and only two of its roughly two dozen listed attorneys claim immigration expertise. HHS plans to award it a yearlong contract worth up to $150 million.
Why did the government stop paying Acacia?
HHS withheld funding while demanding client-level data on the children Acacia's network represents. Acacia says the information is confidential and legally privileged, and the agency says it must know what it is funding.
What happens to children who lose their lawyers?
They face immigration court alone. Attorneys say judges now set deadlines of three to four weeks for complex asylum applications that once took six to nine months, and providers cut off from funding cannot take new cases during the lapse.