(Young migrants are overseen strolled by Comprehensive Health Services caregivers at a "tender-age" facility for babies, children and teens, in Texas‘ Rio Grande Valley, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, in San Benito, Texas. Sheltering migrant children has become a booming business for Comprehensive Health Services, a Florida-based government contractor, as the number of children in government custody has swollen to record levels over the past two years.)
SAN BENITO, Texas — On a recent day in a remodeled brick church in the Rio Grande Valley, a caregiver tried to soothe a toddler, offering him a sippy cup. The adult knew next to nothing about the little 3-year-old whose few baby words appeared to be Portuguese. Shelter staff had tried desperately to find his family, calling the Brazilian consulate and searching Facebook.
Nearby, infants in strollers were rolled through the building, pushed by workers in bright blue shirts lettered “CHS,” short for Comprehensive Health Services, Inc., the private, for-profit company paid by the U.S. government to hold some of the smallest migrant children.
Sheltering migrant children has become a growing business for the Florida-based government contractor. More than 50 babies, toddlers and teens were closely watched on this day inside this clean, well-lit shelter surrounded by chain link fences.
A joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has found that the Trump administration has started shifting some of the caretaking of migrant children from mostly religious-based nonprofits to private, for-profit contractors.
So far, the only private company caring for migrant children is CHS, owned by beltway contractor Caliburn International Corp. In June, CHS held more than 20 percent of all migrant children in government custody. And even as the number of children has declined, the company’s federal funding for their care has continued to flow. That’s partly because CHS is still staffing a large Florida facility with 2,000 workers even though the last children left in August.
Trump administration officials say CHS is keeping the Florida shelter on standby and that they’re focused on the quality of care contractors can provide, not about who profits from the work.
“It’s not something that sits with me morally as a problem,” said Jonathan Hayes, director of the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. “We’re not paying them more just because they’re for-profit.”
Kelly on Caliburn board
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly joined Caliburn’s board this spring after stepping down from decades of government service; he joined the Trump administration as Secretary of Homeland Security, where he backed the idea of taking children from their parents at the border, saying it would discourage people from trying to immigrate or seek asylum.
Critics say this means Kelly now stands to financially benefit from a policy he helped create.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the retired general told him first-hand that he believed enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy would serve as a deterrent.
“What’s really the motivator, the deterrence or the dollar?” said Acevedo, who signed an Aug. 14, 2019, letter with dozens of law enforcement leaders asking Trump to minimize the detention of children. “I would question that if he’s getting one dollar for that association.”
Kelly did not respond to requests for comment. But in a statement, Caliburn’s President Jim Van Dusen said: “With four decades of military and humanitarian leadership, in-depth understanding of international affairs and knowledge of current economic drivers around the world, General Kelly is a strong strategic addition to our team.”
Earlier this year after leaving government, Kelly was widely criticized by activists who spotted him in a golf cart at Homestead. The facility was at least temporarily shut down in August after numerous lawmakers said holding that many children in a single facility was abusive.
CHS gets more business
Meanwhile, CHS was getting more business housing migrant children. Today it’s operating six shelters including three “tender age” shelters that can house the youngest, infants and toddlers, in the Rio Grande Valley. And the company has plans underway to run another 500 bed shelter in El Paso, the company said.
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State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, received a Preservation Texas Honor Award for his restoration and adaptive reuse of the Webb-Martinez House restoration of the 1906. Lucio has repurposed it as a lawyer’s office.
A view of the Neale House front porch Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, that was built circa 1850 in Brownsville. The home is now included on Preservation Texas 2018 Most Endangered Places list. A grant application for Community Development Block Grants funds to restore and relocate the
NEALE HOUSE, a disappearing piece of Brownsville history, has been REJECTED BY MCNAIR.
Why don't you write your own story, asshole? Can't?
O YES THEY ARE SPENDING THE MONEY LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY.......BUT.TAXES ARE GOING UP PROPERTY TAXES ALSO AND EVERYTHING IS GOING UP....
THEY ARE CUTTING ON SOCIAL SECURITY, AND EVERYTHING ELSE WE ARE PAYING FOR ALL OF IT AND IT IS BARELY STARTING
..........
All this is just a money maker. That is all it is.
Fuck you, Montoya. Fuck you down.
YES SIR..IT'S TAX PAYER MONEY..PITCH IN SOME MORE AND MORE ..YOU SHOULD SEE HOW ARE THEY WASTING THE MONEY ..
TAXES ARE GOING UP AND UP..
There is nothing that the government does, that the private sector can't do better and cheaper.
CHS is or was IES
Still linked to the Sucios
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