The mystery surrounds Trump

Instead, he delivered the project in a military base to acquisition logistics LLC, a small company that has no experience in the list of a correction center and had never won a federal contract worth more than $ 16 million. The company also lacks a website in operation and lists, since its address is a modest house in Suburban Virginia owned by a 77 -year -old retired Navy.

The mystery about the award only deepened last week when the new installation began accepting its first detainees. The Pentagon has refused to publish the contract or explain why he selected acquisition logistics in a dozen other bidders to build the mass camp of the store in Fort Bliss in western Texas. At least one competitor has filed a complaint.

Via News

The secret and rapid hiring process is emblematic, experts said, of the broader government career to comply with the promise of the Republican President to arrest and deport approximately 10 million migrants living in the United States without permanent legal status. As part of that impulse, the government is becoming more and more to the military to handle tasks that had traditionally left civil agencies.

A member of the Congress who recently toured the camp said he was concerned that such a small and inexperienced company would have been trusted to build and direct an installation that is expected to house up to 5,000 migrants.

“It’s too easy for standards to slide,” said Veronica EscoBar representative, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Bliss. “Private facilities operate too often with a profit margin in mind instead of a government installation.”

The lawyer Joshua Schnell, who specializes in the federal contracting law, said he was worried that the Trump administration has provided very little information about the installation.

“The lack of transparency on this contract leads to legitimate questions about why the Army would grant such a large contract to a company without a website or any other publicly available information that demonstrates its ability to carry out such a complicated project,” he said.

Ken A. Wagner, president and CEO of acquisition logistics, did not respond to telephone messages or emails. No one responded to the door at his three bedroom house that appeared as his company’s headquarters. Virginia Records List Wagner as business owner, although it is not clear if you could have partners.

The Army declines the liberation contract

The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, approved the use of Fort Bliss for the new detention center, and the administration is hopeful to build more in other bases. An army spokesman refused to discuss his agreement with acquisition logistics or reveal details about the construction of the camp, citing the litigation on the company’s qualifications.

The Department of National Security, which includes the application of immigration and customs of the United States, decreased for three weeks to answer questions about the detention camp it supervises. After this story was published on Thursday, department spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, issued a statement that said “under the leadership of President Trump, we are working at turbo speed in profitable and innovative ways to comply with the mandate of the US people for the mass deportations of illegal criminal foreigners.”

She said the Fort Bliss installation “will offer everything offered by a traditional ice detention center, including access to legal representation and a law library, access to visits, recreational space, medical treatment space and nutritionally balanced meals.”

Manadel and through images

Appointed Montana Camp for the closest road, the installation is being built in the Chihuahuan sand and scrub desert, where summer temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and heat -related deaths are common. The 60 acres site (24 hectares) is near the border between the United States and Mexico and El Paso International Airport, a key center for deportation flights.

The camp has made comparisons with “Aligator Alcatraz”, a tents complex of $ 245 million erected to keep ice arrested in the Everglades of Florida. This installation has been the subject of complaints about unhealthy conditions and demands. A federal judge recently ordered that this installation closed.

The vast majority of the approximately 57,000 migrants arrested by ICE are in private prisons operated by companies such as Florida’s Geo Group and Corecivic, based in Tennessee. As these facilities are filled, ICE is also exploring temporary options in military bases in California, New York and Utah.

In Fort Bliss, construction began a few days after the army that issued the contract on July 18. The site work began months before, before Congress approved the large draft tax cuts and expenses of Trump, which includes a $ 45 billion record for immigration arrest. The announcement of the Department of Defense only specified that the Army was financing the initial $ 232 million for the first 1,000 beds in the complex.

Three white tents have been erected, each of about 810 feet (250 meters) long, according to satellite images examined by News. Half dozen smaller buildings surround them.

Setareh Ghandehari, a spokesman for Defense Group Detention Watch, said that the use of military bases resorted to World War II, when Japanese Americans were imprisoned in Army camps, including Fort Bliss. She said that military facilities are especially prone to abuse and negligence because families and loved ones have difficulty accessing them.

“The conditions in all detention facilities are inherently horrible,” Ghandehari said. “But when there is less access and supervision, it creates the potential for even more abuse.”

Via News

The company will be responsible for security

An application notice of June 9 for the Fort Bliss project specified that the contractor will be responsible for building and operating the detention center, including providing medical safety and care. The document also requires a strict secret, ordering the contractor to inform ICE to respond to the calls of the members of the Congress or the media.

The tender was only open to small businesses such as acquisition logistics, which receives a preferential state because it is classified as a small veteran and Hispanic work at a disadvantage.

Although Trump’s administration has fought to prohibit programs for diversity, equity and inclusion, federal hiring rules include regulars established for small businesses owned by women or minorities. In order for a company to compete for these contracts, at least 51% must be owned by people belonging to a federally designated racial or ethnic group.

One of the loser bidders, Gemini Tech Services based in Texas, presented a protest that challenges the prize and the hast of the Army’s hastive construction with the United States Government Responsibility Office, the independent supervision arm of the Congress that resolves such disputes.

Gemini alleges that acquisition logistics lacks the experience, staff and resources to perform the work, according to a familiar person with the complaint who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke under condition of anonymity. The past works of acquisition logistics include the repair of small boats for the Air Force, provide information technology support to the Department of Defense and build temporary offices to help with the application of the Immigration Law, according to federal records.

Gemini and his lawyer did not respond to messages for comments.

A GAO decision is not expected on whether it is not expected, rule out or require corrective actions before November. A legal appeal is also pending with a federal court in the United States in Washington.

A judge in that case denied a motion that sought to freeze the construction on the site at a hearing sealed Thursday.

Schnell, the contracting lawyer, said that acquisition logistics can be working with a larger company. Geo Group Inc. and Corecivic Corp., the largest prison operators for profit, have expressed interest in hiring with the pentagon to house migrants.

In a profit call this month, the executive president of Geo Group, George Zoley, said his company had partnered with an established contractor of the Pentagon. Zoley did not appoint the company, and Geo Group did not respond to repeated requests asking who had been associated.

A Corecivic spokesman said he was not associating with acquisition or Gemini logistics.

Goodman reported from Miami. News Alan Setterman writer in Richmond, Virginia, and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, NM, contributed to this report.