Watchdog: ICE paid $17M on empty hotel room housing for migrants
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid nearly $17 million for unused, empty beds last year after entering into a contract with a Texas company to house migrant families in hotel rooms in Arizona and Texas, according to a report published this week by a government watchdog office.
ICE in March 2021 awarded San Antonio-based Endeavors an $87 million contract to house up to 1,239 migrants at six hotels from March to September 2021 at an average cost of $352 per bed space each night.
When the contract was announced, the federal government had been struggling to cope with an increase in unaccompanied minors and families in its custody. ICE takes custody of migrant families after Border Patrol or customs officers process them at the border.
The move was designed to reduce the ICE workload by contracting with a private company to house, process and care for migrant families apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border in hotels known as “emergency family reception sites.”
Two of the hotels were in the Phoenix metro area; one was in Yuma; two were in El Paso; and a sixth was in Pearsall, Texas. All of have since closed.
In a report published Monday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General determined at least half of the hotel rooms ICE paid for to house migrant families were empty from March to June. That cost ICE, and U.S. taxpayers, an estimated $16.98 million on unused bed space.
The inspector general said ICE did not adequately justify why it gave the $87 million contract to Endeavors without soliciting bids from other compa
Under the contract with Endeavors, ICE paid more than $10 million for unused hotel rooms at the three hotels located in Texas. They paid the remaining $6 million for empty rooms in the three hotels in Arizona.
ICE stopped using the hotels to house migrant families in December. The remaining facilities closed down in March, the agency said.
nies. In fact, Endeavors had initially reached out to ICE to submit a proposal to house migrants in hotels.
“ICE records showed that Endeavors had no experience providing the services covered by the sole source contract, including hotel beds or all-inclusive emergency family residential services,” the report said. “Rather, the contractor only had experience providing staffing for other migrant services. Further, there was no documentation to show that Endeavors had the capability to provide such services, other than the statements made in its proposal.”
Investigators found that Endeavors failed to meet some of the federal government’s standards of care for migrant families in short-term detention. They include providing video recording capabilities to monitor use-of-force incidents, or safeguarding important documents such as passports and birth certificates for families in custody.
The company did not follow proper health care protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at a time when cases were on the rise as variants swept around the globe, the report said.
“Families were not tested by ICE for COVID-19 prior to being transported to hotels and were not always tested by Endeavors staff upon arrival at or departure from hotels, putting migrant families and the outside population at risk of contracting COVID-19,” it added.
ICE documented 1,713 COVID-19 cases at the hotels operated by Endeavors between April and November 2021.
ICE disputed the report’s findings, saying the increase in the arrival of families created an “unusual and compelling urgency” that allowed it under the Federal Acquisition Regulations to award the contract to Endeavors.
“ICE used this exemption to competition based on an urgent need to obtain Emergency Family Staging Centers and meet its critical mission of housing, feeding, transporting, and providing medical attention to thousands of noncitizen families,” Stephen Rancone, ICE’s chief financial officer and senior component accountable official, said in a letter responding to the report.
ICE said it followed COVID-19 protocols and it had field medical coordinators provide guidance and oversight on screening and testing at all Endeavors facilities. It worked closely with Endeavors to ensure that it met standards of care for migrants staying at the hotels, the agency said.
Endeavors told The Arizona Republic in an emailed statement it sought to help the federal government with the influx of migrant families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. They disputed the inspector general’s findings about testing and care.
“We agree with ICE and its conclusion that Endeavors followed appropriate protocols and met the standard of care for migrant families in this contract,” the statement said. “For Endeavors, lending our expertise to help ensure families are afforded care and services was simply the right thing to do, and consistent with our mission of compassionately serving vulnerable people in crisis.”
ICE operated three family detention centers, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. They had a combined capacity of 3,326 beds.
According to the inspector general’s report, ICE had available beds in those facilities at the time but did not use them. The federal agency has stopped housing families at those three centers as of December.
Under the contract with Endeavors, ICE paid more than $10 million for unused hotel rooms at the three hotels located in Texas. They paid the remaining $6 million for empty rooms in the three hotels in Arizona.
ICE stopped using the hotels to house migrant families in December. The remaining facilities closed down in March, the agency said.
Instead of housing the families in staging centers such as the hotels, ICE said it was moving toward using alternatives to detention. But it did not rule out using them once again in the future.
“Should ICE’s requirements for housing migrant families change in the future, then ICE will conduct an assessment to appropriately determine the housing needs of families before entering into a similar or new contract,” the agency said.