Intel Firm: We Have ‘Tremendous Empathy’ for Immigrant Families

The intelligence contractor MVM says its leadership has “removed job postings” related to the Trump administration’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ immigration policy, which until yesterday separated migrant children from their families. In two recent stories, The Daily Beast reported MVM has since 2014 held multi-million dollar contracts with ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services for transporting unaccompanied immigrant children, including a current $162 million contract with ICE. On Thursday morning, a PR representative provided The Daily Beast with the following statement, dated June 18, from Joseph Arabit, the company’s homeland-security director:

“MVM has tremendous empathy for the families and children arriving at the U.S. border. In recent days, there’s been a misperception of the role MVM is playing on the issue of unaccompanied immigrant children.  The current services MVM provides consist of transporting undocumented families and unaccompanied children to Department of Health and Human Services designated facilities—we have not and currently do not operate shelters or any other type of housing for minors.  While these children and families are in our care, our priority is ensuring they are safe and treated with dignity and compassion. We have been providing these transport services since 2014 and take pride in the level of care these children receive from our dedicated, professional staff.

In 2017, prior to the zero tolerance policy, MVM was one of several organizations awarded a contract to provide as-needed emergency support services to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).  Under this program MVM is required to maintain readiness in the event ORR requests services from MVM. To date we have not performed any emergency support services for ORR nor do we anticipate providing any services in the near future.   At the direction of the company’s leadership, we have removed job postings related to readiness operations under the current zero tolerance policy. MVM has not pursued any new contracts associated with undocumented families and children since the implementation of the current policy.”