WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump’s administration final month awarded a contract value as much as $1.2 billion to construct and function what it says will change into the nation’s largest immigration detention complex, it didn’t flip to a big authorities contractor or perhaps a agency that focuses on non-public prisons.
As an alternative, it handed the venture on a army base to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a small enterprise that has no listed expertise working a correction facility and had by no means received a federal contract value greater than $16 million. The corporate additionally lacks a functioning web site and lists as its deal with a modest house in suburban Virginia owned by a 77-year-old retired Navy flight officer.
The thriller over the award solely deepened final week as the brand new facility started to simply accept its first detainees. The Pentagon has refused to launch the contract or clarify why it chosen Acquisition Logistics over a dozen different bidders to construct the large tent camp at Fort Bliss in west Texas. Not less than one competitor has filed a criticism.
The secretive — and brisk — contracting course of is emblematic, specialists stated, of the federal government’s broader rush to meet the Republican president’s pledge to arrest and deport an estimated 10 million migrants dwelling within the U.S. with out everlasting authorized standing. As a part of that push, the federal government is popping more and more to the army to deal with duties that had historically been left to civilian businesses.
A member of Congress who lately toured the camp stated she was involved that such a small and inexperienced agency had been entrusted to construct and run a facility anticipated to deal with as much as 5,000 migrants.
“It’s far too simple for requirements to slide,” stated Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district contains Fort Bliss. “Personal services far too steadily function with a revenue margin in thoughts versus a governmental facility.”
Legal professional Joshua Schnell, who focuses on federal contracting legislation, stated he was troubled that the Trump administration has supplied so little details about the ability.
“The dearth of transparency about this contract results in reliable questions on why the Military would award such a big contract to an organization with out a web site or another publicly accessible info demonstrating its capacity to carry out such a sophisticated venture,” he stated.
Ken A. Wagner, the president and CEO of Acquisition Logistics, didn’t reply to telephone messages or emails. Nobody answered the door at his three-bedroom home listed as his firm’s headquarters. Virginia information record Wagner as an proprietor of the enterprise, although it is unclear whether or not he may need companions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accredited utilizing Fort Bliss for the brand new detention heart, and the administration has hopes to construct extra at different bases. A spokesperson for the Military declined to debate its cope with Acquisition Logistics or reveal particulars in regards to the camp’s development, citing the litigation over the corporate’s {qualifications}.
The Division of Homeland Safety, which incorporates U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to reply questions in regards to the detention camp it oversees.
Named Camp East Montana for the closest highway, the ability is being constructed within the sand and scrub Chihuahuan Desert, the place summertime temperatures can exceed 100 levels Fahrenheit and heat-related deaths are frequent. The 60-acre (24-hectare) website is close to the U.S.-Mexico border and the El Paso Worldwide Airport, a key hub for deportation flights.
The camp has drawn comparisons to “Alligator Alcatraz,” a $245 million tent advanced erected to carry ICE detainees within the Florida Everglades. That facility has been the topic of complaints about unsanitary circumstances and lawsuits. A federal decide lately ordered that facility to be shut down.
The overwhelming majority of the roughly 57,000 migrants detained by ICE are housed at private prisons operated by corporations like Florida’s Geo Group and Tennessee-based CoreCivic. As these services refill, ICE can be exploring momentary choices at army bases in California, New York and Utah.
At Fort Bliss, development started inside days of the Military issuing the contract on July 18. Web site work started months earlier, earlier than Congress had handed Trump’s massive tax and spending cuts invoice, which features a document $45 billion for immigration enforcement. The Protection Division announcement specified solely that the Military was financing the preliminary $232 million for the primary 1,000 beds on the advanced.
Three white tents, every about 810 toes (250 meters) lengthy, have been erected, in line with satellite tv for pc imagery examined by The Related Press. A half dozen smaller buildings encompass them.
Setareh Ghandehari, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Detention Watch, stated using army bases hearkens again to World Struggle II, when Japanese Individuals had been imprisoned at Military camps together with Fort Bliss. She stated army services are particularly susceptible to abuse and neglect as a result of households and family members have issue accessing them.
“Situations in any respect detention services are inherently terrible,” Ghandehari stated. “However when there’s much less entry and oversight, it creates the potential for much more abuse.”
A June 9 solicitation discover for the Fort Bliss venture specified the contractor will probably be liable for constructing and working the detention heart, together with offering safety and medical care. The doc additionally requires strict secrecy, ordering the contractor inform ICE to answer any calls from members of Congress or the information media.
The bidding was open solely to small corporations equivalent to Acquisition Logistics, which receives preferential standing as a result of it is labeled as a veteran and Hispanic-owned small deprived enterprise.
Although Trump’s administration has fought to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs, federal contracting guidelines embrace set-asides for small companies owned by girls or minorities. For a agency to compete for such contracts, at the very least 51% of it have to be owned by folks belonging to a federally designated deprived racial or ethnic group.
One of many shedding bidders, Texas-based Gemini Tech Providers, filed a protest difficult the award and the Military’s rushed development timeline with the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace, Congress’ unbiased oversight arm that resolves such disputes.
Gemini alleges Acquisition Logistics lacks the expertise, staffing and assets to carry out the work, in line with an individual aware of the criticism who wasn’t approved to debate the matter and spoke on the situation of anonymity. Acquisition Logistics’ previous jobs embrace repairing small boats for the Air Power, offering info expertise help to the Protection Division and constructing momentary places of work to assist with immigration enforcement, federal information present.
Gemini and its lawyer did not reply to messages in search of remark.
A ruling by the GAO on whether or not to maintain, dismiss or require corrective motion will not be anticipated earlier than November. A authorized enchantment can be pending with a U.S. federal courtroom in Washington.
Schnell, the contracting lawyer, stated Acquisitions Logistics could also be working with a bigger firm. Geo Group Inc. and CoreCivic Corp., the nation’s greatest for-profit jail operators, have expressed curiosity in contracting with the Pentagon to deal with migrants.
In an earnings name this month, Geo Group CEO George Zoley stated his firm had teamed up with a longtime Pentagon contractor. Zoley did not identify the corporate, and Geo Group didn’t reply to repeated requests asking with whom it had partnered.
A spokesperson for CoreCivic stated it wasn’t partnering with Acquisition Logistics or Gemini.
___
Goodman reported from Miami. Related Press author Alan Suderman in Richmond, Va., and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, N.M., contributed to this report.
___
Contact the AP’s world investigative staff at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.
