Quick, screen-shot this before it disappears: In January of this year, the federal government announced they were looking for a “contractor ” to provide “Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien children.”
This announcement – still available online here – is damning in that it conclusively (at least to me) proves the government knew more than six-months ago that the “child-walkers” would be coming.
To quote from the supporting documents:
“A. Introduction
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has a continuing and mission critical responsibility for accepting custody of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from U.S. Border Patrol and other Federal agencies and transporting these juveniles to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters located throughout the continental United States. ICE is seeking the services of a responsible vendor that shares the philosophy of treating all UAC with dignity and respect, while adhering to standard operating procedures and policies that allow for an effective, efficient, and incident free transport. The Contractor shall provide unarmed escort staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment, and supplies necessary to provide on-demand escort services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age, seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year. Transport will be required for either category of UAC or individual juveniles, to include both male and female juveniles. There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total: 25% local ground transport, 25% via ICE charter and 50% via commercial air. Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC from DHS to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff, travel coordination, limited stationary guard services to accommodate for trip disruptions due to inclement weather, faulty equipment, or other exigent circumstances. In emergency situations, the Contractor shall be called on to provide temporary shelter locations (such as trailers) with shower facilities for juveniles who are pending placement with HHS when bed space is unavailable nationwide for extended periods of time. The Contractor shall provide temporary guard services and other support as necessary during these emergencies.
In addition, the Contractor shall have personnel who are able to communicate with juveniles in their own designated language(s). While this may not require each employee to be fluent in all of the encountered languages, personnel should have access to and knowledge of translation services.”
Depending on how cynical you wish to view things – with more than six-months of advance warning, the US government made a willful and deliberate decision to hire contractor(s) (good for fighting pernicious unemployment, I’ll grant you) instead of taking the alternative course – which would have been beefing up America’s southern border and adding to ICE agents to turn back the human tide.
It also tells us in stark simplicity how the federal bid system the answers the question: “Why does HHS not want reporters and members of Congress talking directly with kids and shelter workers?”
I think it’s easy: They don’t want to be “found out?”
(Thanks to the the reader who tipped us on this outrageous, orchestration of the “crisis”!)