Newly disclosed government correspondence reveals mounting pressure on a federal contractor to rapidly expand housing and COVID-19 isolation capacity for unaccompanied migrant children as the Biden administration struggled to accommodate record arrivals.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

Federal officials overseeing the Biden administration’s response to the 2021 migrant influx imposed urgent deadlines on a California shelter contractor to develop plans for accommodating additional unaccompanied children, according to newly released emails that expose the administration’s struggle to manage overcrowded facilities during the border crisis.

The internal correspondence obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) documents repeated demands from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) for immediate answers about expanding the emergency shelter in Pomona, California, operated by Cherokee Federal. The exchanges occurred in August 2021, months after the administration began opening temporary facilities to accommodate growing numbers of children arriving without parents or legal guardians.

FOIA Doc – Comms between Biden HHS ACF and Cherokee Federal in August 2021 RE children migrant influx (1).pdf by yourNEWS Media

The correspondence, detailed in an October 15 report by the Daily Caller News Foundation, begins with an Aug. 5 email designated “Importance: High.” An ACF official requested information about installing additional bunk beds, constructing more housing structures and expanding quarantine accommodations for children exposed to COVID-19.

“[W]hen do you estimate you’ll run out of COVID space?” the official asked, seeking details that could determine whether the facility could safely accommodate additional arrivals.

The initial request identified its purpose as “for planning purposes related to a potential increase in capacity and [Cherokee Nation Management & Consulting’s] COVID processes.” However, it also specified a response deadline of “Friday, July 5 2021,” a date that had already passed when the correspondence was sent.

CASA Director James Fitzpatrick characterized the discrepancy as “likely a typographical error — adding to the chaos and confusion of this exchange.”

“When read in the broader context of the conversation with the follow up extensions requested by Cherokee Federal, and the fact that July was in the past — all of the context leads to this being a request for an immediate next day reply,” Fitzpatrick said.

Cherokee Federal responded Aug. 5 that it needed additional time to determine construction and equipment costs, including pricing for beds, structures and “the needs to increase the COVID numbers.” The company requested “an extension until 6:00 pm PST Monday August 9, 2021.”

Federal officials escalated the matter the following day. After unsuccessful attempts to contact the contractor’s contracts manager, an ACF representative advised that “the ACF Secretary is requesting a meeting today to discuss the increased capacity needs at the Pomona site.” The agency scheduled an “urgent meeting at 3pm Eastern Time today,” which Cherokee Federal acknowledged by confirming it was “good for a call at 3:00 pm EST today.”

The dispute over deadlines continued Aug. 9, when Cherokee Federal requested another extension, explaining that it was “still waiting on a few responses.” The company sought until Aug. 11 to complete the necessary information, but federal officials refused to accommodate that timetable.

“Due to the tight deadline and the urgency of this request, we are not able to grant an extension until Wednesday, August 11th,” an ACF official replied. “However, we are able to grant the extension until close of until [sic] 3pm Eastern Time.”

A subsequent email reaffirmed the revised deadline. Cherokee Federal ultimately delivered its cost estimate Aug. 10, prompting another request for clarification by noon Eastern on Aug. 13. The contractor advised that day that “unfortunately we will be late in our response.”

The correspondence has renewed scrutiny of the administration’s emergency shelter operations, particularly following a June 2022 HHS inspector general audit that identified significant deficiencies in COVID-19 protections at temporary facilities established during the migrant surge.

Investigators examined 11 emergency sites, including Pomona, and determined that eight failed to conduct contact tracing for children or employees who tested positive for the virus. The audit attributed broader compliance problems partly to the rapid expansion of shelter capacity and weaknesses in federal oversight.

“ORR contracted with several organizations that had little or no experience providing shelter and services to children, and the contracts did not contain adequate details about COVID-19 protocols,” the inspector general reported.

The watchdog concluded that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which operates within HHS and oversees unaccompanied migrant children, had previously managed increases in arrivals and “should have been better prepared.”

Fitzpatrick argued that the newly disclosed correspondence demonstrates inadequate planning and raises questions about whether pressure to expand shelter operations contributed to subsequent failures in the government’s handling of migrant children.

“The Biden HHS was woefully unprepared for the unaccompanied migrant children crisis that they created,” Fitzpatrick told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They were desperately reaching out to contractors in August 2021 for help to house the influx of children and expected answers back almost immediately.”

“This type of behavior and pressure on contractors may have contributed to the unprecedented number of missing unaccompanied minors that occurred during the Biden years,” he added.

The Trump administration’s ACF has also criticized its predecessor’s placement procedures, pointing to the number of children released from federal custody during the surge and subsequent concerns about sponsor screening.

“At the height of the Biden administration border crisis, 22,000 [unaccompanied alien children] were in [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] care,” ACF’s Office of Communications told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These children were then rapidly released to poorly vetted sponsors.”

ACF said approximately 1,725 children were currently receiving care through ORR, a figure tracked through the government’s publicly available unaccompanied children data. The agency also cited efforts over the preceding 18 months to locate children previously released to sponsors.

According to figures reported by NTD, federal authorities have located 157,000 children, including some described as having been “found and rescued from trafficking situations and abuse.” The figure does not establish that every child had previously been formally reported missing.

“ORR continues to search for thousands of missing minors to confirm their safety,” ACF told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Pomona operation represented a major federal financial commitment during the crisis. Government contract spending records show Cherokee Federal received a contract valued at approximately $706.9 million in April 2021 to operate the facility.

Cherokee Federal has previously defended its management of the shelter. In an Aug. 13, 2024, statement reported by the Cherokee Phoenix, CEO Steven Bilby rejected criticism of the company’s work and emphasized its compliance and reporting procedures.

“We are proud of our work in Pomona, where we followed regulations and flagged every potential safety issue to the government so it could be reviewed and quickly addressed,” Bilby said.

The shelter, which could accommodate approximately 2,500 children simultaneously, processed roughly 10,000 unaccompanied minors before operations ended in November 2021, according to local reporting on its closure.

Although the emails establish that federal officials pressed Cherokee Federal to produce expansion plans on accelerated deadlines, they do not independently demonstrate that those demands caused later failures in child tracking or sponsor oversight. The correspondence nevertheless provides a detailed account of the operational pressure federal agencies and contractors faced as they attempted to expand emergency accommodations during the 2021 border surge.

Original article
Add as a preferred source on Google