The Trump administration is outsourcing some of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration-related operations to companies through contracts potentially worth $1.2 billion.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded contracts to 13 private companies who it believes can help it identify the residences and places of work of individuals believed to be undocumented immigrants, according to a Scripps News investigation.
ICE gave out the two-year contracts last month for nationwide “skip tracing services,” according to federal contracting records seen by the publication. Skip tracing is the process of locating an individual in order to collect a debt, repossess assets, or serve subpoenas, among other reasons.
In October, DHS put out the call for to potential vendors capable of skip tracing and process serving. Some of the companies on the payroll hadn’t previously had a business relationship with the government, according to the report, which adds that some are operated out of residences.
Fraud Inc., which is based out of an apartment in Conroe, Texas, could see up to $25 million, for instance.
The contracts stipulate that the more undocumented immigrants the companies locate, the more lucrative their contracts become.
Most of the 13 companies haven’t yet been paid, according to Scripps.
The DHS and the White House have been contacted for comment.
ICE, under Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is at perhaps its most widely criticized point since Trump took office last year. After two deaths at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis just this month, the Trump administration announced it would de-escalate the tense situation in the city by moving out border patrol official Gregory Bovino and sending in border czar Tom Homan.
Noem, who worked closely with Bovino, appears to be in the hot seat, and some Republican senators are calling for her to step down.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told the Daily Beast. “She should be out of a job. It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad on policies that he won on.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski added that the Trump administration should have “new leadership” at DHS.
