ICE spent $17M of no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused: DHS watchdog

The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent $17 million of a no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused between April and June last year and that a contractor failed to meet ICE standards.

The DHS Office of Inspector General reviewed ICE’s plans for migrant families crossing the southern border as the numbers surged early last year and how the contract was awarded.

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ICE entered into an $86.9 million “sole source” contract with a company called Endeavors, rather than through a competitive bidding process. For six months, Endeavors would provide 1,239 beds and other services to migrants after ICE recognized its current family residential centers would be insufficient to house the number of migrants crossing the border. 

Endeavors, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, separately entered into a no-bid contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for more than $500 million. The contracts were controversial because Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who also served as a Biden transition advisor on Homeland Security issues is on the company’s board.

The ICE contract used six hotels to help migrants with stays of up to three days, while they were enrolled in Alternatives to Detention (ATD). But the watchdog found that ICE was not justified in using a no-bid contract, which it awarded after receiving an unsolicited proposal from Endeavors, and that much of the space was unused as the contract required ICE pay for up to 1,239 beds no matter how many were used.