ICE just forked out contracts worth a combined $426 million to firms with almost no experience running detention centers as Secretary Kristi Noem’s ouster plunges the Department of Homeland Security into fresh chaos.
The Trump administration on Friday awarded $113.1 million to defense firm KVG LLC to build a new migrant warehouse in Maryland, and $313.4 million to security group GardaWorld Federal Services to run another planned facility in Arizona, The Washington Post reports.
The newspaper adds that KVG has never before worked as an immigration contractor. GardaWorld provides guards at the “Alligator Alcatraz” compound in Florida, as well as other centers in Canada, but has not previously been awarded tenders to actually run any facilities on behalf of ICE.
The contracts come after Trump ousted Noem, nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her habit of cosplaying as an immigration enforcement agent, last week amid a slew of mounting controversies during her tenure as Homeland Security secretary.
These included splurging an estimated $220 million on a dramatic immigration ad campaign featuring herself, overseeing alleged managerial carnage within her department, allegedly engaging in a steamy affair with her adviser Corey Lewandowski, and writing off the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by ICE agents as a “domestic terrorism” incident.
“It was only a matter of time,” as one Homeland Security insider told the Daily Beast. Noem is set to be replaced by MAGA Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin before the end of the month.
Trump canned Noem via Truth Social on Thursday after two humiliating congressional committee appearances earlier in the week, where she was roundly seen to have wilted under grilling over the scandals surrounding her leadership.
Homeland Security is also currently staggering along under the weight of a partial shutdown as lawmakers remain deadlocked over immigration enforcement policy reforms, with more than 90 percent of the department’s employees currently working without pay.
Friday’s awards to KVG and GardaWorld further come as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to rapidly expand the number and capacity of detention holding facilities across the country amid the president’s ongoing nationwide immigration crackdown.
Under the terms of those contracts, the inexperienced firms will be required to construct housing units, leisure areas, courtrooms, dining halls, visitor areas and healthcare centers, all in the face of what local officials in Maryland and Arizona describe as severe infrastructure constraints, including limited availability of water, sewage and electrical systems.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS, KVG and GardaWorld for comment on this story.
