Key piece of Trump administration plan to expand migrant detention space appears to have fallen through
A contract for a sprawling tent city at the Fort Bliss military base in Texas has been terminated, according to a contract record reviewed by NBC News.
A key piece of the Trump administration’s plan to rapidly expand immigration detention capacity by tens of thousands of beds appears to have fallen through, according to two sources and a government contracting document reviewed by NBC News.
Facing a shortage of immigration detention space, President Donald Trump first announced he would add 30,000 beds for immigrants at Guantánamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba. When that plan fell through over cost and logistical issues, the plan shifted to Fort Bliss, a military base in Texas, to build a sprawling tent city for immigrants to be held before deportation.
A $3.8 billion contract was awarded to Deployed Resources, a contractor that has previously provided toilets and tents for concertgoers, victims of natural disasters and, more recently, migrants who were briefly detained and processed by Border Patrol.
But last week, new language appeared on the Deployed Resources contract posted to a public records database that says it was terminated. The document says it was terminated "for convenience" and cites Trump’s executive order about “radical transparency" and "wasteful spending,” but it is unclear whether cost savings played into the decision.
Representatives for Deployed Resources did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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