Blumenthal, Durbin, Hirono, & Merkley Demand Answers After Unqualified Organization WITH Close TIES to ICE Receives No-bid Contract to Provide Legal Services to Migrant Children

BLUMENTHAL, DURBIN, HIRONO, & MERKLEY DEMAND ANSWERS AFTER UNQUALIFIED ORGANIZATION WITH CLOSE TIES TO ICE RECEIVES NO-BID CONTRACT TO PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES TO MIGRANT CHILDREN August 18, 2026 “This award is concerning given the incredible lack of details provided in the award notice, the nonexistence of legal services provided by your organization, the Trump Administration’s continued use of no-bid awards…and the Trump Administration’s staggering disregard for the welfare of children in immigration enforcement.” [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, today pressed Our Rescue, an anti-human trafficking and child exploitation organization with close ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for answers after the organization received a no-bid contract of up to $244 million to provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) joined Blumenthal in writing to the Chief Executive Officer of Our Rescue, Derek Benner, and the Chairman of Our Rescue’s Board of Directors, Sean Vassilaros. In their letter, the Senators raised concerns that the organization lacks experience as a legal services provider and demanded records and information about its vague contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “This award is concerning given the incredible lack of details provided in the award notice, the nonexistence of legal services provided by your organization, the Trump Administration’s continued use of no-bid awards to steer taxpayer dollars to President Trump’s friends, family, and associates, and the Trump Administration’s staggering disregard for the welfare of children in immigration enforcement,” the Senators wrote. The Senators continued, “Unfortunately, Our Rescue is not a legal services provider. A review of your public-facing materials confirms this, revealing no mention of providing legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, nor even to survivors of human trafficking or child exploitation in the United States.  While your organization’s stated mission of combatting human trafficking and child exploitation is laudable, you appear to address those issues in the United States in ways that are different from legal representation. Thus, it gives us apprehension that your organization is potentially being tasked with administering essential legal services to children whose cases require highly specialized expertise.” The Senators raised concerns that Our Rescue’s documented ties to ICE could undermine confidentiality regarding unaccompanied migrant children: “Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Congress deliberately assigned the care of and services for unaccompanied migrant children to ORR, wholly separate from the immigration enforcement functions the Act assigned to the Department of Homeland Security.  This was done specifically to ensure that ORR functioned as a child welfare agency guided by unaccompanied migrant children’s best interests rather than deportation quotas or other immigration enforcement priorities. Yet under the Trump Administration, ORR has increasingly abandoned this statutory mandate in service of ICE’s enforcement agenda, including by routinely providing ICE formerly firewalled information about unaccompanied migrant children and their loved ones.” “Given these historical facts, Mr. Benner’s nexus to ICE as the former leader of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the lack of a publicly available description of the contract, we must ask exactly what information on unaccompanied migrant children Our Rescue may have agreed to provide to ORR. It is critical that Our Rescue and ORR maintain transparency about any information-sharing the contract requires,” the Senators concluded. The full text of the Senators’ letter is available here and below. Dear Mr. Benner and Chair Vassilaros: We write to request records and information regarding the recent contract of up to $244 million, of which $158.1 million has already been disbursed, that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded your organization to “ensure the continuity of legal services for unaccompanied alien children.” This award is concerning given the incredible lack of details provided in the award notice, the nonexistence of legal services provided by your organization, the Trump Administration’s continued use of no-bid awards to steer taxpayer dollars to President Trump’s friends, family, and associates, and the Trump Administration’s staggering disregard for the welfare of children in immigration enforcement. We request that you immediately provide information and records to allow us to assess whether this contract is yet another waste of taxpayer dollars meant to harm migrant children. Unaccompanied migrant children are a uniquely vulnerable