On Monday, the Ministry of Defense announced that he has awarded a new massive contract to build the largest migrant detention camp at Fort Bliss, an object that will play a key role in Trump’s deportation plans.
The uninitiated was that one of the subcontractors that plans to work on the project, the Group on Disaster Management, belongs to Nathan Albers, who was previously jointly in a company that in 2019 pleaded guilty to hire unregistered workers and hide them from immigration bodies. Albers-Republican donor, who spent time in Mar-a-lago.
Two people who have a direct knowledge of the award, and two acquaintances with the company reported propublica that the disaster management group would help build a new facility, receiving a large part of more than $ 1.2 billion that the government allocated for the project.
“The idea that you can use illegal work and then sell ICE services, Irony is thick,” said Scott Schuchart, a former internal security official and US immigration and customs execution during the first term of President Donald Trump, and then by President Joe Biden, referring to the Immigration case.
In response to Propublica’s questions, a press -secretary of disaster management stated that Albers and disaster management had refused to investigate DHS The Tenterlogix and were released. Upon learning of the unlawful actions of Tentlogix co-founder, the spokesman said: “Mr Albers dispersed with the minority and non-working owners of Tenterlogix.”
The press secretary did not answer directly with the questions about the role of the disaster management in the Fort Bliss Camp, saying only that the company “proudly supports national importance projects for almost 20 years.”
The White House did not answer questions about the disaster and alberts, referring to Propublica to DOD and DHS, none of which did not comment.
A new migrant detention camp is expected to hold up to 5,000 people near El -Pasa, Texas. The main contractor is the logistics of the acquisition based in Virginia, and people who have a direct knowledge of the Fort Bliss, said propublica that the Amentum, a large contractor for technology and technological services will become another subcontractor.
Neither the acquisition logistics nor the Amentum answered the propublica questions about the project.
Disaster management specializes in the construction of temporary structures. Since 2020, he has won more than $ 500 million for government contract works, mainly to build housing for the American program for relocation of Afghan refugees.
Last year’s Ministry of Labor announced He found that he worked on the Afghan refugee treaty in the management and subcontractors, violated federal laws, including minimal salaries and overtime. The agency resumed almost $ 16 million for workers’ remuneration, and the disaster management has signed an agreement on fulfilling the requirements with the agency intended to prevent further violations. The company did not answer questions in this case.
Alberts’ ties with Tentlogix would not rule it either on the management of disaster from other state -owned contract works, Amy Scott, General Lawyer of the Government Supervision Project explained.
Thronlogix has reported its criminal conviction in the database of federal contracts, but Albers and its other enterprises are considered to be individual legal entities. Companies rewarded with federal contracts are obliged to confirm that they work with a satisfactory record of business ethics, but “much should not be reported,” Amy said. “I don’t even think it will appear on the radar of the contract officer.”
However, there is a network of connections between Tenterlogix and disaster control. Albers was one of two Tentlogix directors when pleading guilty of violating the Immigration Law. Second, Gary Hendra, co -founder of the Disaster Management with Alberts, and they once had a son -in -law. When immigration authorities searched The Dientlogix in 2018, it shared a disaster management.
The raid followed the audit of the Internal Security Investigation in 2016 in The Tenterlogix, which contained 96 undocumented staff. According to the court records, Hendra tried to deceive the investigators by setting up a projectile campaign and handing over unregistered workers to this organization to hide them from the auditors of internal security investigations. But the agency discovered this scheme and found unregistered workers on the company’s website when the officials searched it in 2018. This year, Albers was listed as one of the company’s corporate officers.
In 2019, Hendra pleaded guilty The immigration charges with another campaign officer and was sentenced to a year of imprisonment. (He served just over three months, then was given early release from the pandemic.) The corporate organization Tentlogix also pleaded guilty and was ordered to get rid of more than $ 3 million. Although Albers was not personally accused, he signed the company’s blame, the court records. The company applied for bankruptcy in 2020.
Hendra did not respond to a comment request.
The federal contract work on the management of the disaster was profitable for Alberts. Last year, he purchased a $ 30 million house from Jupiter, Florida, which then occupied the most expensive house of the district.
Albers has also recently become a great donor to republican companies, to which he gave more than $ 150,000 in the last year. He and his wife spent the night at the Mar-a-Lago election in 2024 and once co-chairs with a charity in Trump’s national golf club with President Eric and his wife. They were present at the cryptocurrency “Cryptocurrency”, sponsored by Trump supporters in the digital foreign exchange industry; Participants paid From $ 2,500 to $ 1 million per tickets. (Trump’s organization did not answer the propublica questions.)
Credit:
Screenshot from propublica
Since the end of last year, disaster management has spent $ 210,000 in Congress and the Immigration Administration, including “financing related to temporary facilities”. According to federal disclosure, the company had no preliminary lobbying history.
The share of disaster management in the immigration detention contract on Fort Bliss can be occupied by one of the company’s largest contracts.
Fort Bliss reward comes when immigration arrests have taken off in recent months, and ICE has been decreasing in the space to hold all that it has delayed. In the past, those who were arrested by ice were mostly housed in whole-duty content.
But in the urgency of increasing deportations, the Trump administration appealed to contractors to build the so-called soft objects with solid designs, which can be created much faster.
The administration considered military bases as places to create these new detention camps. In April, Ice announced a $ 3.8 billion award for the construction of such an object for detailed resources that managed the lion’s share of soft unilateral objects that were used in the past to temporarily accommodate immigrants in the country along the southern border.
Ice dramatically canceled this contract a few days after it was announced without explanation. Now it seems to manage disaster can do most of this work. Insider Galina, according to PROPBLICA, that next year a piece of disaster management of $ 1.2 billion in Fort Bliss could cost hundreds of millions for the company next year, although it is unclear how three contractors divide work. Bloomberg first reported The total cost of the Fort Bliss contract.
It is expected that the facility in the Fort Bliss will become the first of many. Earlier in the month, Trump signed a cost of $ 45 billion for the construction of new migrants sites. Evaluated experts This can double the country’s potential for immigration detention from about 50,000 to more than 100,000.
The mica rosenberg contributed to the report. Pratheek Rebala. Kirsten Berg and Mario Oriza have made research.
