Ex-ICE agent’s group awarded $158 million to represent migrant children

The Trump administration has awarded a $158 million contract to represent unaccompanied migrant children to a nonprofit group founded by a former immigration agent who inspired the film Sound of Freedom, a federal contracting database shows.

A notice of the award to the Minneapolis-based group Our Rescue, which combats child trafficking, was posted online late Friday. The contract is with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the care of minors who cross the border without authorization and without a parent or guardian. The award could increase up to $244 million, the contract notice showed.

President Donald Trump’s administration in recent weeks has pivoted away from working with advocacy groups that previously represented the minors. Last week, a small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration was awarded a $150 million no-bid contract to represent unaccompanied minors in their immigration court proceedings.

That firm, Burke Law Group, is helmed by Marcella Burke, a former Trump appointee. Immigration advocates criticized the contract and the Trump administration’s decision to cut ties with groups that had two decades of experience in legally representing minors.

Our Rescue was founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who quit his job and embarked on efforts to rescue children from sex trafficking rings in countries including Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, and Thailand. His work was loosely fictionalized in Sound of Freedom, a 2023 film starring actor Jim Caviezel that drew acclaim from conservatives.

Others, however, criticized the movie for catering to unfounded conspiracy theories, including those peddled by the far-right group QAnon.

During Trump’s first term, Ballard was appointed in 2019 as a co-chair of a council tasked with making antitrafficking recommendations to the White House.

Ballard abruptly left Our Rescue in July 2023, days before Sound of Freedom was screened at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J.

Three months later, a group of five women filed a lawsuit in Utah state court alleging Ballard had coerced them into sexual acts as part of his trafficking rescue missions tied to the organization, then known as Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).

A separate federal lawsuit in 2024 accused him of sex trafficking and forced labor. Both lawsuits remain active.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement and Ballard’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

Our Rescue’s website states that it works with law enforcement and other partners around the world to provide services to people who are vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. It is not clear whether the organization employs immigration attorneys with expertise in providing legal counsel to minors.

Derek Benner, the organization’s chief executive, said in a statement that ensuring unaccompanied minors have access to support and are protected from exploitation aligns with his group’s mission.

“These are among the most vulnerable children in the world, and they deserve nothing less than the full weight of our experience,” said Benner, who is also a former ICE agent. “We welcome this responsibility and are working on their behalf.”

Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which provides legal representation to children in the Washington, D.C., area, accused the Trump administration of seeking to ramp up deportations of minors by going after their legal representation.

The administration is trying to “make sure that the kids have an attorney on paper but are not actually providing meaningful legal advocacy,” Lukens said.

Lukens said his organization has not received notice from the government about transferring the immigration cases of minors to the new contract holders. He said his group continues to represent unaccompanied children in cases where they have been retained.