Oversight Committee Investigates For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center Contractors
Washington, D.C. (July 11, 2019)— Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, sent letters to three for-profit contractors after reports detailing the grave conditions at immigrant detention centers and facilities for immigrant children. “The Committee is investigating the Trump Administration’s rapidly increasing use of for-profit contractors to detain tens of thousands of immigrants, including a troubling series of reports of health and safety violations and the dramatically escalating and seemingly unchecked costs to U.S. taxpayers for these contracts,” Cummings and Raskin wrote. The Chairmen sent letters to CoreCivic, GEO Group, Inc., and DC Capital Partners, LLC—a firm that owns Caliburn International, whose subsidiary, Comprehensive Health Services (CHS), runs the nation’s largest shelter for immigrant children. The Chairmen expressed concern that the value of the contracts increased significantly under the Trump Administration and resulted in massive profits. For example:
Cummings and Raskin also sent letters to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services requesting the contracts with for-profit contractors that run immigrant detention centers and house immigrant children; documents showing whether the agencies are ensuring the contractors comply with the law; and documents related to the contractors’ potential conflicts of interest.
Click here to read the letter to CoreCivic.
Click here to read the letter to GEO Group.
Click here to read the letter to DC Capital Partners, LLC.
Click here to read the letter to ICE.
Click here to read the letter to HHS. |