Child Trafficking Increasing Under Biden? Corporations with History in Child Sex Abuse Vying for Government Contracts to Handle Children Coming Across the Border

THE INFLUX OF children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border over the last three months is focusing attention — and criticism — on the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Even as officials claim that they are processing and releasing children as quickly as possible, a bottleneck has kept thousands of children in Border Patrol custody longer than the court-mandated maximum 72 hours, with more than 100 kids held for more than 10 days, sometimes in harsh conditions. The influx has reached a level where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to, as a Homeland Security statement put it, “look at every available option to quickly expand physical capacity for appropriate lodging.” In its effort to house child migrants as they pass through various agencies’ custody on their way to placement in the U.S., the federal government is likely to turn to an all-too-familiar resource: Private companies that operate custodial facilities which straddle the line between shelters and detention centers. TWO COMPANIES POISED to try for roles related to the Homestead facility have checkered histories in immigrant detention. One of them, Serco, has not contracted to do immigration detention in the U.S., though in 2015, the company pitched itself to members of Congress with family detention in mind. (Serco was awarded a $1.25 billion federal contract in 2013 to help institute online exchanges for the Affordable Care Act.) In the U.K. and Australia, however, the company faced allegations of sexual assaults by its employees against female detainees in their custody. After a parliamentary investigation, Serco apologized and revealed that it had dismissed 10 of its employees. In the U.K., the company’s prison contracts were also reviewed in 2013 amid allegations that it was charging the government for services it was not providing. The company was fined 23 million pounds, or over $30 million, and no criminal charges were brought against it. Caliburn and its subsidiary Comprehensive Health Services previously faced allegations of sexual assault against children at the Homestead facility. After it was shuttered in 2019, a report revealed that there were four separate child sex abuse claims, resulting in the firing of one employee and the resignation of two others. The investigation, conducted by the Administration for Children and Families, also found that Caliburn did not run child-abuse background checks for their employees.