Latest news with #CharltonCounty
The Independent
5 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
DOGE finds an unlikely new cut as $47m plan for nation's largest migrant detention center put on hold
The Trump administration has reportedly paused a $47 million plan to expand an immigration detention center in Georgia because the deal is under review by DOGE, Elon Musk 's federal cost-cutting program. Charlton County administrator Glenn Hull told The Washington Post he had been informed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the government couldn't move forward with the deal for the time being, scuttling a planned Thursday vote in the county on the contract. 'This is a big blow to Charlton County,' Hull said, saying the contract was expected to bring some 400 jobs to the area. The U.S. DOGE Service flagged the deal with government contract Geo Group under a policy requiring Department of Homeland Security contracts worth more than $20 million to face review, according to May 28 federal officials' meeting notes obtained by the paper. The White House said it would defer to agencies to describe the state of ongoing contract talks. The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and GEO Group for comment. The deal at issue would have expanded an existing ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, and combined it with an adjacent vacant prison, forming the largest immigration detention center in the country, capable of holding nearly 2,000 people. The paused deal comes as the Trump administration continues to push for more funding for immigrant detention beds, intending to nearly double U.S. capacity, while urging immigration officials to rapidly deport more people. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly berated colleagues in May and urged them to hit 3,000 immigration arrests per day, according to Axios. Recent data shows that as of May 23, more than 48,000 people were in immigration detention, and the Trump administration was deporting around 850 per day that month. The contract review is also a reminder of the DOGE effort's ongoing, influential role at Homeland Security, even as the effort's figurehead, Elon Musk, has departed the administration in a cloud of acrimony with President Trump. The DOGE group has reportedly worked with Homeland Security to pool vast troves of data to assist in immigration enforcement, and has reportedly helped broker collaboration between the agency and other departments like the Social Security Administration, which has also taken on new roles in immigration enforcement under Trump. That DOGE could snare a key Trump priority, like expanding the immigration system, is a signal the Musk effort could continue to have large sway over the administration and its agenda going forward, even as Musk is outside the White House.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Plans for nation's largest ICE detention center halted amid DOGE review
The federal government has paused a plan to issue a $47 million contract for an expanded immigrant detention center in Georgia amid a review of the contract by the U.S. DOGE Service, according to a local official briefed on the matter and documents obtained by The Washington Post. An official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed local officials in Charlton County, Georgia, on Wednesday that the agency was unable to move forward with a plan to reopen a former prison as an immigrant detention facility, County Administrator Glenn Hull said in an interview. The county has scrapped plans to hold a vote on the contract that had been scheduled for Thursday evening. The sizable contract was flagged for review under a federal policy that requires all Department of Homeland Security contracts worth more than $20 million to be reviewed by DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, according to notes from a May 28 meeting of federal agency officials obtained by The Post. The scrutiny of DHS is relatively new for DOGE, the group formerly led by Elon Musk, which has made sweeping changes to the federal government resulting in billions of dollars in canceled contracts and the departure or dismissal of thousands of federal workers. The new detention contract would have created the largest immigrant detention center in the country and a potential hub for housing immigrants arrested throughout the southeast. It would have combined Folkston, an active ICE detention center that can hold up to 1,100 detainees, with D. Ray James, an idle former prison located on an adjacent property that can hold around 1,870 detainees, according to an agenda item posted on the county's website. 'This is a big blow to Charlton County,' Hull said of the paused proposal, which he said would have brought 400 additional jobs to the area. He said the deal is not canceled but would require a 'federal policy change' to resume. The plan's disruption by a DOGE contract review has not been previously reported. DOGE's action also deals a blow to Geo Group, ICE's largest contractor and owner of the Georgia facility. The firm has been expecting a dramatic expansion of its detention business under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Tom Homan, the border czar at DHS, was previously paid consulting fees by Geo, according to an ethics disclosure first reported by The Post last week. A spokesman for Geo deferred questions to ICE. A spokeswoman for ICE could not immediately provide a comment. A White House spokeswoman has said that Homan abides by 'the highest ethical standards' and that he has previously told reporters he would recuse himself from discussions of government contracts. Homan has championed a dramatic expansion of the nation's immigrant detention system, which he says needs at least 100,000 beds to accommodate the large numbers of undocumented immigrants the administration plans to deport. ICE has 51,000 detained immigrants and 54,000 'usable beds' for them, according to notes from the meeting last month of federal officials involved with immigration enforcement. Advocates for immigrants have argued that more detention facilities are unnecessary and that the Trump administration is detaining people who pose no harm to the community or risk of absconding. Activists also have opposed plans to expand immigration detention in Georgia. Last year, the actions of Folkston's staff played a role in a 57-year-old detainee not promptly getting to the emergency room while he was having a heart attack, contributing to his death, according to the findings of an investigation by ICE's medical division. Earlier this year, the federal government awarded Geo contracts to reopen facilities in New Jersey for about $60 million a year and in Michigan for about $70 million a year. An agreement to expand detention at Geo facility in Texas is expected to be worth $23 million in annual revenue, the company said. Geo is also hoping to extend its lucrative contract for immigrant ankle monitoring services. On May 30, ICE filed a procurement notice stating that it intended to negotiate a one-year extension with BI Inc., a Geo subsidiary — an extension which could help Geo capitalize on a potential expansion in immigrant monitoring by President Donald Trump. Geo has told investors that it has the ability to grow the immigrant monitoring program to 'upwards of several millions of participants.' Such an expansion could balloon the value of the contract, currently worth about $250 million to $300 million annually, to more than $1 billion, said Joe Gomes, a financial analyst at Noble Capital Markets. It's unclear whether any of these contracts have been reviewed by DOGE. The DOGE team has strangled spending across the federal government since it swept into D.C. at the start of Trump's first administration — including by canceling thousands of contracts. An early target was the Education Department, where DOGE fed sensitive internal financial data into artificial intelligence software to help identify contracts to cut, The Post reported. Their plan was to replicate the process across government, ultimately eliminating every contract not essential to operations or required by law. DOGE has since nixed contracts at at least 22 agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration, and the Agriculture Department, according to the group's own online tracker. DOGE's work at Homeland Security has focused on boosting Trump's immigration priorities. In recent months, DOGE has sought to pool federal data across agencies to help the Trump administration identify and deport undocumented immigrants, The Post reported. DHS has been a crucial part of those DOGE-brokered efforts; for example, it asked the Social Security Administration for help with immigration enforcement and tracking down fraudulent use of Social Security numbers. DOGE also has worked with DHS staff to set up Trump's new visa program for wealthy immigrants, The Post reported. The Trump administration and ICE detention companies have said they expect to accelerate contracts for new detention centers when Congress makes more funding available for immigration enforcement. House Republicans last month approved a tax and spending package that included $59 billion for immigrant detention and transportation over five years — several times the current annual budget for detention. The legislation must still pass the Senate. Geo and its main rival, CoreCivic, together own at least 16 idle facilities that they have said they hope to reopen as immigrant detention centers, according to transcripts of analyst calls, investor filings and contract applications. Aaron Schaffer and Dan Keating contributed to this report.
