Native American companies profit from detaining immigrants
centralization of immigrant detention and increased oversight of its patchwork system of more than 350 immigrant detention centers owned and operated by private prison firms and local governments.
Although DHS, through ICE, outsources most of its arrested immigrants to private firms and governments in the business of imprisonment, the department has seven of its own detention centers (“Service Processing Centers”).
Barry writes that these centers, five of which are found on the southern border, have historically formed the foundation of the federal government’s immigrant detention system. Over the past two decades, however, and especially since 2003, the Justice Department has preferred outsourcing immigrants to in-house detention.
Among immigrant advocacy and human rights organizations, the DHS promise to overhaul immigrant detention has sparked hope that ICE will stop its outsourcing practices and reestablish the government as the direct custodian of the more than 350,000 immigrants it has held for detention in recent years.
The type of outsourcing and subcontracting practices that have led to major oversight and accountability problems within ICE’s contracted facilities are deeply ingrained even within ICE’s own detention centers.
While more Native American corporations are securing DHS contracts, most of the government contracts held by ANCs and other Native American corporations are with the Department of Defense (DOD).
Doyon’s family
Doyon says it “operates a diverse array of subsidiary businesses and joint ventures.” Its main subsidiaries include Doyon Government Group, Doyon Associated, Doyon Universal Services, Cherokee General Corporation, and Doyon Drilling. These subsidiaries have other subsidiary companies and joint ventures, allowing Doyon to compete through preferential contracting in an array of business sectors propped up by government contracts—and where, as in detention services, it has little or no experience of its own.
The member of the Doyon family that contracts for immigrant detention is Doyon Security Services, part of the company’s Doyon Government Group. In addition to the El Paso contract, Doyon has a $144.8 million contract to provide security and most other services at ICE’s Krome detention center in Miami, Florida.
Doyon Security Services boasts that it “has grown into a powerhouse in the security field during the past six years. Within the past twelve months this subsidiary has won over $266 million in new competitive contracts that employ 960 personnel in the homeland security-immigration and customs enforcement fields.”
On its Web site, Doyon points to its Board of Advisers for Doyon Government Group. Barry writes that this board has only one member: Ret. Brig.
