{"id":605,"date":"2026-08-11T18:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=605"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:17:15","slug":"disgraced-anti-sex-trafficking-ngo-gets-244-million-to-rep-migrant-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=605","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced Anti-Sex-Trafficking NGO Gets $244 Million to Rep Migrant Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit in Utah whose founder resigned after multiple women accused him of trafficking and sexual abuse has won a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in government custody.<\/p>\n

Read more Max Miller\u2019s Endless Wars<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trump administration gave Our Rescue a no-bid $244,034,658 contract on August 7, according to the federal award notice posted late Friday night. The deal floods the organization with seven times the amount of money it had in 2025, according to its most recently available Form 990, which put total assets at $36.9 million.<\/p>\n

More from Whitney Curry Wimbish<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how many children Our Rescue will represent. The notice says only that it will provide legal services to children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), established to offer support for victims of human trafficking and those seeking asylum in the United States. Nearly 1,800 children were in the agency\u2019s care in June; over the last year, it has averaged about 1,908 children monthly.<\/p>\n

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 requires that the federal government \u201cshall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable,\u201d that all unaccompanied minors receive legal \u201ccounsel to represent them in legal proceedings\u201d and that it will \u201cprotect them from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking.\u201d Our Rescue and a small Texas law firm founded by a former Trump appointee are taking up that work after the Trump administration failed to pay and then canceled the contract of the legal aid groups previously providing the services.<\/p>\n

Our Rescue, formerly known as Operation Underground Railroad, or O.U.R., did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls for more information, including when it expects to begin work or how many children it will represent.<\/p>\n

Our Rescue conducts international sting operations to catch sex traffickers, similar to Dateline<\/em>\u2019s \u201cTo Catch a Predator.\u201d The organization gained national notoriety in 2023, when the film Sound of Freedom<\/em> dramatized the life of founder and CEO Tim Ballard, portraying him as a Homeland Security Investigations agent sent to rescue child sex trafficking victims in Colombia.<\/p>\n

Shortly after its release on July 4, multiple former employees came forward to accuse Ballard himself of sexual assault and trafficking, including during sting operations. According to the women, Ballard would use a \u201ccouples ruse\u201d during stings, coercing them into acting as his romantic partner so that traffickers wouldn\u2019t suspect him. They said that he would assault them while demanding they \u201cremain in character\u201d and play their part as one half of a \u201ckinky couple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later revelations included that the Department of Homeland Security would not verify Ballard\u2019s claim that he had worked there; that members of law enforcement saw his sting operations as stunts to lure donations; and that some operations resulted in more harm to victims. According to a report last year in The Appeal, those instances included \u201can orphanage in Haiti where OUR sent children it purportedly rescued, and at which those children were raped and subjected to forced abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year he resigned, Form 990 documents show that Ballard was drawing a $566,993 salary from the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

Today, the CEO is Derek Benner, who is drawing a salary of $413,387, saying in his most recent letter to donors that he \u201cowes those we serve to remain lean.\u201d Benner came to the organization with a background in conducting sting operations of a different kind.<\/p>\n

Read more Private Intelligence Firms Are Selling Dossiers on AI and Data Center Critics<\/a><\/p>\n

Benner spent a decade at the Department of Homeland Security, including as of Homeland Security Investigations, and before that, the deputy executive associate director. During his tenure, the agency set up a fake university in Michigan to lure foreign nationals who wanted to extend the length of time they could stay in the country by obtaining student visas. Officials named the school University of Farmington, after the office space it used in Farmington Hills. \u201cOperation Paper Chase\u201d resulted in the arrests of 250 students in early 2019, most of whom left the U.S. voluntarily.<\/p>\n

That winter, Sen. Kamala Harris said on social media that the sting \u201cisn\u2019t just cruel, it\u2019s a waste of taxpayer dollars. Officials must be held accountable for this.\u201d Benner, meanwhile, published a letter in the Detroit Free Press<\/em> and on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, saying that students knew Farmington had no classes and no teachers and so shouldn\u2019t have enrolled if they didn\u2019t want to break the law. \u201cFarmington is a clear example of a pay-to-stay scheme, which is against the law and, not only creates a dangerous lack of accountability, but also diminishes the quality and integrity of the U.S. student visa system,\u201d he said of the fake school his organization created.<\/p>\n

ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT<\/strong> Our Rescue , the group in 2024 worked with 228 law enforcement agencies and conducted operations in 27 countries and all 50 U.S. states. It ran 195 rescue missions and assisted in 1,969 global arrests.<\/p>\n

Its deal to provide legal services follows the administration\u2019s award of a no-bid $150 million contract to the small Texas law firm Burke Law Group to perform the same work. The law firm has just 24 attorneys, only two of whom have expertise in immigration and asylum cases. The practice\u2019s co-founder, Marcella Burke, was a Trump appointee at the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

The hundreds of millions spent on Our Rescue and Burke Law Group comes after the Trump administration allowed a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice to expire after failing to pay the organization for more than half a year. Acacia subcontracts with nearly 100 legal aid organizations across the country to provide children with legal services. The ORR stopped paying Acacia in November, after lawyers refused to hand over confidential information about their underage clients. The decision jeopardized the legal aid of about 26,000 children.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn the Trump administration on August 6 to pay the $65 million it owes to the nonprofits by the following day at noon Pacific time. Though that did not change the termination of the contract, it got the aid organizations already representing undocumented children the money due them for services rendered.<\/p>\n

As the Prospect<\/em> has reported, Trump and his adviser Stephen Miller are taking particular aim at children as part of their ethnic cleansing campaign, rushing them through the legal process and abusing their rights in detention. In multiple immigration courtrooms this summer, the Prospect<\/em> has witnessed children too young to understand the gravity of the proceedings, such as a toddler with pigtails, who had no guardian with her, and who played in her chair as her pro bono lawyer spoke to the judge, then held his hand when they walked out.<\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn also noted that the Trump administration had failed to persuade her that it had a plan to represent vulnerable children by executing new agreements for the legal services at the heart of the lawsuit, \u201cfor example describing two agreements recently reached for a seeming fraction of the legal services to be provided across the country.\u201d She ordered the administration to file a report \u201cdetailing their current and ongoing compliance\u201d with her order.<\/p>\n

Read more Barack, Your Country Needs You<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The founder and CEO of Our Rescue resigned in 2023 amid allegations that he had sexually abused and trafficked women himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[297],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-and-justice","tag-tagged-dhs-donald-trump-human-trafficking-immigration-law-justice-orr-youth"],"yoast_head":"\nDisgraced Anti-Sex-Trafficking NGO Gets $244 Million to Rep Migrant Kids - Frontier Housing Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=605\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disgraced Anti-Sex-Trafficking NGO Gets $244 Million to Rep Migrant Kids - Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The founder and CEO of Our Rescue resigned in 2023 amid allegations that he had sexually abused and trafficked women himself.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=605\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T18:17:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"headline\":\"Disgraced Anti-Sex-Trafficking NGO Gets $244 Million to Rep Migrant Kids\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-11T18:17:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605\"},\"wordCount\":1207,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/4dc9f0d3e5125026fff69bfdd5361ed5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Tagged: DHS,\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0human trafficking,\u00a0Immigration,\u00a0Law & Justice,\u00a0ORR,\u00a0Youth\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Law and Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605\",\"name\":\"Disgraced Anti-Sex-Trafficking NGO Gets $244 Million to Rep Migrant Kids - Frontier Housing Report\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/4dc9f0d3e5125026fff69bfdd5361ed5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-11T18:17:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=605#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/4dc9f0d3e5125026fff69bfdd5361ed5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/4dc9f0d3e5125026fff69bfdd5361ed5.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Photo by: Andrea Renault\\\/STAR MAX\\\/IPx 2026 1\\\/6\\\/26 Immigrants \\\/ migrants in New York City line the hallways outside of an Immigration Courtroom in 26 Federal Plaza. 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