Three hotels on the southern border have been taken over by the federal government to house hundreds of migrant families as they are processed then released into the United States, according to an internal document leaked to the Washington Examiner.
A 50-step document created by federal contractor Family Endeavors lays out the step-by-step process that families released by the Border Patrol will go through before they are let out of custody and allowed to proceed to their destinations across the country. The plan outlines how families are picked up by a private charter bus company, given an orientation at a hotel where they will be held for roughly three days, examined by medical staff, tested for the coronavirus, and eventually taken to regional airports and bus stations. Four other hotels will begin housing people later this month.
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The plan is meant to house 1,239 people at a time across Texas and Arizona, with families constantly shifting in and out of the hotels. Family Endeavors was given an $87 million contract to oversee the operation, although the Biden administration did not open it to other companies, an unprecedented move that Immigration and Customs Enforcement defended to the Washington Examiner as being justified given the emergency at the border.
Families ready to be transferred out of the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol facilities are boarded onto charter buses that will take them to the hotel. Alaska-based company Trailboss is facilitating transportation of the families to and from hotels. The 600-person company began as a snow removal contractor before expanding to take on contracts from the Defense Department, General Services Administration, and DHS prior to 2021.
Buses will be dispatched to Border Patrol facilities at its requests. Families will be picked up, and an onboard escort will be available to answer questions. Three hotels in Texas and Arizona — the Best Western Plus El Paso Airport Hotel, Comfort Suites El Paso Airport, and Holiday Inn Express and Suites Phoenix/Chandler — began accepting families Friday.
The Washington Examiner contacted each of the hotels Friday about whether they would continue to welcome guests or have staff working for the duration of the federal contracts given the ongoing contract, but none commented.
Once buses arrive at the hotel, an intake coordinator will greet families and answer immediate questions in Spanish. Each person is given a lanyard or wristband with a QR code sticker with identifying information. Rapid medical assessments and coronavirus screenings are done by an emergency medical technician or licensed practical nurse, which include a 15-question screening and temperature check. Any person with a fever or who answers “yes” to a question will be immediately tested then walked to a quarantined waiting area for the results. Positive individuals will be given a room assignment in the hotel’s “designated quarantine zone” of the hotel. For example, Comfort Inn’s entire fourth floor has been turned into a coronavirus quarantine space. Those who test negative but are not symptomatic will still be sent to quarantine, potentially in rooms where other sick people have stayed.
Families who pass the initial medical screening without issue will be taken to the restrooms, then the triage room for coronavirus tests. The intake coordinator will provide each person with a new face mask, and those who pass the tests will be brought into orientation in groups of three to five families. Those who fail will be put into a separate group, to be brought through the same orientation process, receive room assignments, and get escorted to their rooms without being exposed to the others. The document does not reveal whether families are allowed to leave their room once they are let inside.
Families may or may not be given keycards to their room “depending on whether we follow the Endeavors Homeless Site protocols where guests are escorted to rooms by staff and key cards.” The shelter manager is supposed to make rounds to each room and introduce staff members and the immigration case coordinator to each family. Room amenities, meal schedules, legal needs, phone calls, and spiritual care needs, “ideally Bibles in language of familiarity,” will be discussed at that time, the document states.
The case coordinator will conduct a deeper needs assessment at some point, and an Endeavors employee will assist the family with questions it has about its immigration paperwork given by the Border Patrol. Families will be given one outfit per person for the three days they are held at the hotel and a new set of clothing when they are discharged.
Families are supposed to undergo medical checks and behavior assessments daily. Any person who feels sick can request help, though the document did not state how someone should seek help. If immediate medical care is needed, a medical professional will visit with the person and determine whether he or she should be transported by Trailboss to a local medical facility or if 911 should be called to the hotel.
Otherwise, over the course of their stay, families will be escorted in groups of two to four families, or 20 people, to “programming activities,” including recreation in an outdoor tent on the hotel property and legal counsel.
“Movements are tracked to ensure family safety,” the outline states.
At an unspecified time during their stay, families will be enrolled into ICE’s case management system. The plan makes no mention of administering DNA tests among families as ICE had done in 2019 amid the 2019 humanitarian crisis. At that time, 30% of suspected fake families were found to be unrelated, and adults posed as parents to children who were not there because they were significantly more likely to be released into the U.S. instead of pushed back south of the border.
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An ICE officer will look over the family’s immigration paperwork and discuss the unit’s plans after being released. Families may be required to speak with a DHS liaison about their experience at the hotel before leaving. Once the family is ready to be discharged from the hotel, the case manager reviews final information and makes arrangements for transport to an airport or bus station with Trailboss, and the family is checked out at the time of departure.
