04-23-2020, 02:40 PM
$66 Mil, Federal Agents, National Guard
Wasted on 2,500-Bed Camp That
Averaged 30 Immigrants
APRIL 22, 2020|JUDICIAL WATCH
![[Image: JudicialWatch_FB_CorruptionChronicles-Im...68x401.jpg]](https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/JudicialWatch_FB_CorruptionChronicles-ImmigrantCamp_1200x627_v1.1-768x401.jpg)
Against the advice of frontline agents, the federal government
opened a temporary immigration detention facility that was
barely used and cost a ghastly $66 million to operate for just
five months. During that time the tent encampment situated in
a rural west Texas community near the Mexican border housed
an average of just 30 detainees, according to a scathing
federal audit that blasts the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
for the waste. Though it has a 2,500-person capacity, the facility
never held more than 66 illegal aliens on any given day,
investigators from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found.
Not only did Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pay a private
contractor tens of millions of dollars in facility costs, it spent
“about $5.3 million for food services—the preparation and delivery
of meals and snacks—it did not need,” the congressional probe reveals.
In an enraging example, investigators write that, during the
first three months, the government paid for about 675,000
meals despite ordering only 13,428 because there were not
enough detainees. The U.S. also “leveraged significant
federal personnel resources” that added up to an additional
$6.7 million. This includes 75 unarmed guards to monitor the
camp around the clock and officers from DHS agencies
such as CBP, the Border Patrol (BP), Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as soldiers from the
National Guard. Investigators did the math and figured that
each illegal immigrant detainee that stayed at the camp was
guarded by four soldiers, three security guards and at least
one CBP agent. The resources “could have been allocated
to other missions,” the GAO writes in its report.
Here is a breakdown of the federal officers wasted on this
seldom-used immigrant detention camp in addition to the
separately paid contract security guards. Twenty-one CBP
agents responsible for facility operations, such as detainee
intake, welfare checks and transportation, among other things.
Eleven BP agents from the El Paso sector, one of the nation’s
busiest, 10 CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations
and five ICE agents to help coordinate on decisions made
about individuals at the facility. On top of all that,
116 Texas National Guard soldiers were deployed to the
encampment for logistical support such as meal distribution
and monitoring security cameras, among other duties.
The facility in the El Paso County town of Tornillo was once
used to detain illegal immigrant minors and was briefly reopened
for single adults around the beginning of August 2019.
It finally closed at the start of 2020, but not without fleecing
American taxpayers. It’s not like the government didn’t have
opportunities to shut it down earlier. In fact, initially the camp
was only supposed to open for three months at a cost of
$47 million and could have been closed based on the numbers—less
than 1% of capacity. Instead, the feds extended the deal for
two months at a cost of $19 million. “Border Patrol officials in
the El Paso sector told us that the sector recommended to
Border Patrol headquarters that the facility be closed and
resources reallocated elsewhere for other CBP missions,
due to the consistently low numbers of individuals held at
the facility and the personnel resource requirements to
operate the facility,” the GAO report states.
But, as we regularly see in government, there is often little
consensus—or cooperation—among agencies, even when
they exist under the same umbrella. In this case the DHS,
the gargantuan agency created after 9/11 to prevent another
terrorist attack. Congressional investigators write that CBP
pushed to keep the Tornillo camp open though it was hardly used.
The 60,000-employee agency is charged with keeping terrorists
and their weapons out of the U.S. while facilitating lawful
international travel and trade and apparently it pulled more
weight than the frontline BP agents. “In contrast, CBP
headquarters officials told us, despite the consistently low
numbers of detainees held in the Tornillo facility, they decided
to continue operations for the 2,500-person facility because
they were operating in an environment with considerable
uncertainty related to migrant flow and wanted to prepare
for the possibility of increased apprehensions,”
the report says.
Wasted on 2,500-Bed Camp That
Averaged 30 Immigrants
APRIL 22, 2020|JUDICIAL WATCH
Against the advice of frontline agents, the federal government
opened a temporary immigration detention facility that was
barely used and cost a ghastly $66 million to operate for just
five months. During that time the tent encampment situated in
a rural west Texas community near the Mexican border housed
an average of just 30 detainees, according to a scathing
federal audit that blasts the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
for the waste. Though it has a 2,500-person capacity, the facility
never held more than 66 illegal aliens on any given day,
investigators from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found.
Not only did Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pay a private
contractor tens of millions of dollars in facility costs, it spent
“about $5.3 million for food services—the preparation and delivery
of meals and snacks—it did not need,” the congressional probe reveals.
In an enraging example, investigators write that, during the
first three months, the government paid for about 675,000
meals despite ordering only 13,428 because there were not
enough detainees. The U.S. also “leveraged significant
federal personnel resources” that added up to an additional
$6.7 million. This includes 75 unarmed guards to monitor the
camp around the clock and officers from DHS agencies
such as CBP, the Border Patrol (BP), Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as soldiers from the
National Guard. Investigators did the math and figured that
each illegal immigrant detainee that stayed at the camp was
guarded by four soldiers, three security guards and at least
one CBP agent. The resources “could have been allocated
to other missions,” the GAO writes in its report.
Here is a breakdown of the federal officers wasted on this
seldom-used immigrant detention camp in addition to the
separately paid contract security guards. Twenty-one CBP
agents responsible for facility operations, such as detainee
intake, welfare checks and transportation, among other things.
Eleven BP agents from the El Paso sector, one of the nation’s
busiest, 10 CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations
and five ICE agents to help coordinate on decisions made
about individuals at the facility. On top of all that,
116 Texas National Guard soldiers were deployed to the
encampment for logistical support such as meal distribution
and monitoring security cameras, among other duties.
The facility in the El Paso County town of Tornillo was once
used to detain illegal immigrant minors and was briefly reopened
for single adults around the beginning of August 2019.
It finally closed at the start of 2020, but not without fleecing
American taxpayers. It’s not like the government didn’t have
opportunities to shut it down earlier. In fact, initially the camp
was only supposed to open for three months at a cost of
$47 million and could have been closed based on the numbers—less
than 1% of capacity. Instead, the feds extended the deal for
two months at a cost of $19 million. “Border Patrol officials in
the El Paso sector told us that the sector recommended to
Border Patrol headquarters that the facility be closed and
resources reallocated elsewhere for other CBP missions,
due to the consistently low numbers of individuals held at
the facility and the personnel resource requirements to
operate the facility,” the GAO report states.
But, as we regularly see in government, there is often little
consensus—or cooperation—among agencies, even when
they exist under the same umbrella. In this case the DHS,
the gargantuan agency created after 9/11 to prevent another
terrorist attack. Congressional investigators write that CBP
pushed to keep the Tornillo camp open though it was hardly used.
The 60,000-employee agency is charged with keeping terrorists
and their weapons out of the U.S. while facilitating lawful
international travel and trade and apparently it pulled more
weight than the frontline BP agents. “In contrast, CBP
headquarters officials told us, despite the consistently low
numbers of detainees held in the Tornillo facility, they decided
to continue operations for the 2,500-person facility because
they were operating in an environment with considerable
uncertainty related to migrant flow and wanted to prepare
for the possibility of increased apprehensions,”
the report says.