Questions surround migrant facility
A day after a national report identified a second unlicensed facility in Phoenix operated by a controversial defense contractor that transports unaccompanied immigrant children as part of continuing family-reunification efforts, questions persisted about how long the children stayed at the site and their treatment.
Some neighbors of the MVM Inc. location on North 20th Street raised questions Wednesday about a claim that immigrant children were bathing in the office building’s public restrooms, while one who had seen it suggested it may have been an isolated incident.
Meanwhile, politicians continued to pressure state officials to crack down on the company and its unli-
censed facilities in Arizona.
Reveal, a news website run by the Center for Investigative Reporting, touched off a local political furor Tuesday with a report of immigrant children bathing themselves in the sinks of the office building’s men’s bathroom.
Bill Weaver, a managing partner at Focus Benefits Group LLC, which leases a unit next to MVM Inc. at the North 20th Street location, told Abe Kwok, an Arizona Republic editorial writer, that he has seen children “bathe” in the men’s bathroom sinks only once.
Reveal reported that Weaver had “said he’s seen it on multiple occasions,” but Weaver declined to elaborate in his five-to-seven-minute interview with Kwok. He also would not discuss with Kwok what he meant by “bathing,” given that there are only sinks in the restroom and other tenants could come in and out.
Other neighbors working for SunTree Center, which operates as an adult day-care center, said they’ve had only positive interactions with MVM staff, and never saw children bathing in the sinks in the women’s bathroom used by multiple units in the building. The neighbors, all women, couldn’t speak to anything that happened in the men’s bathroom.
“The nursing students use the bathrooms, our men’s support group uses the bathrooms and our guests use the bathroom including staff, and I’ve never had any complaints,” said Van Nguyen, Suntree’s owner and director.
“They basically coordinate with the utmost respect and professionalism, so I’m a little bit surprised by a lot of the accusations that’s going on.”
Nguyen is engaged to Kwok but was not interviewed by him.
Weaver was the only person quoted in the Reveal story who said he saw children bathing in the sink.
Nguyen said she has never seen the children at the facility treated poorly. MVM has worked with her on issues related to parking spaces at the facility.
“We’ve only seen just professionalism in their staff,” she said. “Staff and I noticed that when kids were walking they were always accompanied by two or more staff members.”
She also said she had never seen any evidence that children stayed at the facility overnight, although MVM told Reveal that it happened on occasion.
MVM hasn’t responded to a request for comment from The Republic.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement couldn’t immediately say how many children have been at the office building or the maximum amount of time that any child has been at the location.
On Tuesday morning, a Phoenix inspector visited the office suite.
According to an ICE statement, MVM “is authorized to use their office spaces as waiting areas for minors awaiting same-day transportation between U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody and U.S. Health and Human Services custody. These offices are not overnight housing facilities, per the contract with ICE.”
However, MVM acknowledged that it housed minors
Some neighbors of the MVM Inc. location on North 20th Street raised questions Wednesday about a claim that immigrant children were bathing in the office building’s public restrooms, while one who had seen it suggested it may have been an isolated incident.
overnight at a facility on East Osborn Road, which violated its certificate of occupancy and the company’s own policy.
“MVM recently discovered some instances where children who were being escorted through Phoenix stayed at our sites for more than several hours, including overnight, because of travel delays and placement issues by (the Office of Refugee Resettlement),” Joseph Arabit, an MVM spokesman, told The Republic in an email Tuesday.
The Arizona Department of Health Services plans to investigate the 20th Street office, but the agency’s director, Cara Christ, wrote in a letter to Rep. Kelli Butler, D-Paradise Valley, that “children in the custody of the federal government, being transported by the federal government, to a temporary facility” does not meet the state’s definition of child care and would not require a license from the state.
MVM is the primary contractor to provide transportation services for unaccompanied children and is the only contractor identified to “dispatch reunited family to pre-identified release location” after families are reunited, according to an operations plan filed Sunday to reunify 5-to-17-year-old children who were separated from their parents.
State Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, held a press conference Wednesday and said that any allegation of mistreatment of children should demand an immediate injunction and restraining order against the company.
The defense contractor has held more that $600 million in contracts since fiscal year 2016. More than $336 million is with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which contracts with the company to provide transportation of unaccompanied children.
According to a statement from MVM, the company has escorted 130,000 individuals since 2014.