Native American companies profit from detaining immigrants
Native American companies may not have expertise in running detention centers, but they have something more important: preference rights; preference gives Alaska Native corporations a priority shot at getting federal contracts; immigrant detention means business, and several Native American firms are profiting from the get-tough policy on immigration; contract awards to Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) by all federal agencies increased by 916 percent from 2000 to 2008, rising from $508.4 million in 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2008
As the United States adopts a get-tough policy on illegal immigration, handling illegal immigrants is becoming a rapidly growing business (see “The Business Aspects of Get-Tough Immigration Policy,” 21 July 2009 HSNW)
Not only are the major private prison corporations seeing their profits soar from the surge in immigrant inmates, Native American corporations, as the favored recipients of DHS contracts, are also cashing in on the growing opportunities to make money by detaining and imprisoning immigrants.
Americas Program’s Tom Barry writes that Doyon Ltd. is one of several Native American corporations that are sealing major contracts with DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has contracted the operations, transportation, and food services of the 800-bed El Paso Service Processing Center to the private holding group Doyon. Doyon is one of twelve original Alaskan Native Regional Corporations created as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
Other firms of the Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) are also seeking contracts to run detention centers. A few of these Native American corporations are contracting for various parts of ICE’s immigrant detention operations. Contract awards to ANCs by all federal agencies increased by 916 percent from 2000 to 2008, rising from $508.4 million in 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2008. The first volume of a two-part report recently prepared for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) found that ANC federal contracts have been increasing at a 33.6 percent annual rate since 2000—six times greater than the overall increase in federal contract spending.
In 1986 Congress passed legislation that allowed ANCs to participate in the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) program. Since then, Congress has extended special procurement advantages to 8(a) ANC firms, such as the ability to win sole-source contracts for any dollar amount. A Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) study in 2006 lambasted the lack of oversight and accountability by government agencies in issuing sole-source contracts to the ANCs.
The GAO said that “acquisition officials at the agencies reviewed told GAO that the option of using ANC firms under the 8(a) program allows them to quickly, easily, and legally award contracts for any value. They also noted that these contracts help them meet small business goals.”
Immigrant detention reform and outsourcing in ICE central
Last summer DHS announced its decision to overhaul the widely criticized immigrant detention system run by the DHS’s ICE. Among the promised reforms were the
