President Donald Trump and his administration have made a habit of ensuring that their allies — if not his family — are given access to lucrative federal contracts. And one of the latest examples has potentially ominous ramifications for immigrant children under the government’s control.

Last week, the administration officially let expire its contracts with dozens of law firms that had provided legal services to undocumented children who have been deemed unaccompanied, services that included defending their legal protections from deportation.

And now the administration has awarded a no-bid, $150 million contract to a small Texas law firm with ties to Trump — and which seems to have few attorneys with experience in immigration law.

As NPR reported:

The firm, Houston-based Burke Law Group, specializes in advising “companies on complex environmental, regulatory, and enforcement matters,” its website states. Out of 24 attorneys, only two specialize in immigration and asylum cases.

“Instead of taking care of these children, the government is instead implementing things such as awarding a contract to a private small law firm in Texas with no discernible experience in relevant immigration law or child welfare,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, the deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a nonprofit that provided legal services to unaccompanied minors.

There’s certainly reason to doubt this arrangement is designed to provide immigrant children with robust legal services — especially considering the firm’s ties to the Trump administration:

A co-founder of Burke Law Group, Marcella Burke, served in the first Trump administration in both the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. And a founding partner, Jeffrey Hall, currently serves as an assistant administrator at the EPA.

It’s hard to imagine a story that better encapsulates Trump’s corrupt cronyism and his abject cruelty toward immigrants.

Trump officials have used their power over the immigration court system to install underqualified judges, with some experts describing deportation proceedings as a “kangaroo court.” And granting this massive no-bid contract to a small law firm with Trump ties will only fuel such concerns.

Hard as it might be to believe, Trump actually campaigned in 2024 as if he were a protector of immigrant children from abuse. He and his allies peddled misleading claims about the Biden administration while pushing this propaganda — a trend that has continued into Trump’s second term — but it’s noteworthy that he at one point saw political value in appearing somewhat compassionate toward these kids.

But since taking office, the president has rained hell on immigrant children. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the fuzzy hat-wearing boy from Ecuador who was placed in federal custody before he and his father were taken to the notorious Dilley detention center in Texas, is one of many examples.

There have also been harrowing reports of children languishing from sickness and receiving inadequate healthcare in immigrant jails, and Trump’s regime has launched various legal gambits designed to strip immigrant children of their protections against deportation.

None of this suggests we’re talking about an administration that actually cares about defending the rights of immigrant kids.

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