On Monday, the Division of Protection introduced that it had awarded a large new contract to construct the nation’s largest migrant detention camp on the Fort Bliss army base, a facility that can play a key position within the Trump administration’s deportation plans.
Unmentioned was that one of many subcontractors slated to work on the venture, Catastrophe Administration Group, is owned by Nathan Albers, who beforehand co-owned an organization that pleaded responsible in 2019 to a scheme to rent undocumented employees and conceal them from immigration authorities. Albers is a big-time Republican donor who has hung out at Mar-a-Lago.
Two individuals with direct data of the award and two aware of the corporate instructed ProPublica that Catastrophe Administration Group would assist construct the brand new facility, receiving a considerable chunk of the greater than $1.2 billion the federal government has allotted for the venture.
“The concept you possibly can use unlawful labor after which promote providers to ICE, the irony is thick,” stated Scott Shuchart, a former official with the Division of Homeland Safety and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period and later beneath President Joe Biden, referring to the immigration case involving TentLogix, the corporate Albers as soon as co-owned.
In response to questions from ProPublica, a spokesperson for Catastrophe Administration stated that Albers and Catastrophe Administration had been dropped from the DHS’ investigation of TentLogix and exonerated. Upon studying of unlawful actions by TentLogix’s co-founder, the spokesperson stated, “Mr. Albers parted methods as a minority and non-operating proprietor of TentLogix.”
The spokesperson didn’t immediately reply questions on Catastrophe Administration’s position within the detention camp at Fort Bliss, saying solely that the corporate “is proud to assist initiatives of nationwide significance for almost 20 years.”
The White Home didn’t reply questions on Catastrophe Administration or Albers, referring ProPublica to the DOD and DHS, neither of which offered remark.
The brand new migrant detention camp close to El Paso, Texas, is predicted to carry as much as 5,000 individuals. The prime contractor is Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics, and folks with direct data of the work at Fort Bliss instructed ProPublica that Amentum, a serious engineering and expertise providers contractor, will probably be one other subcontractor.
Neither Acquisition Logistics nor Amentum replied to questions from ProPublica in regards to the venture.
Catastrophe Administration makes a speciality of constructing non permanent buildings. Since 2020, it’s gained over $500 million in authorities contracting work, largely to assemble lodgings for a U.S. program to resettle Afghan refugees.
Final yr, the Division of Labor introduced that it had discovered Catastrophe Administration and subcontractors it labored with on the Afghan refugee contract violated federal labor legal guidelines, together with these on minimal wages and additional time. The company recovered almost $16 million in pay for employees, and Catastrophe Administration signed a compliance settlement with the company designed to stop additional violations. The corporate didn’t reply to questions in regards to the case.
Albers’ ties to TentLogix wouldn’t have excluded him or Catastrophe Administration from different authorities contracting work, defined Scott Amey, the final counsel on the Venture On Authorities Oversight.
TentLogix reported its felony conviction within the federal contracting database, however Albers and his different companies are thought of separate authorized entities. Corporations awarded federal contracts are required to certify that they function with a passable file of enterprise ethics, however “a number of issues should not required to be reported,” Amey stated. “I don’t even suppose this would seem on the radar of a contracting officer.”
Nonetheless, there’s an online of connections between TentLogix and Catastrophe Administration. Albers was one in every of TentLogix’s two administrators when it pleaded responsible to violating immigration regulation. The opposite, Gary Hendry, co-founded Catastrophe Administration with Albers, and the 2 have been as soon as brothers-in-law. When immigration authorities raided TentLogix in 2018, it shared an deal with with Catastrophe Administration.
The raid adopted a 2016 Homeland Safety Investigations audit of Tentlogix, which discovered the corporate had 96 undocumented staff on its books. In line with courtroom data, Hendry then tried to deceive investigators by making a shell firm and transferring the undocumented employees to that entity to hide them from Homeland Safety Investigations auditors. However the company found the scheme and located undocumented employees on the firm’s web site when officers raided it in 2018. That yr, Albers was listed as one in every of 4 officers on the corporate’s company filings.
In 2019, Hendry pleaded responsible to immigration prices alongside one other firm officer and was sentenced to a yr in jail. (He served a bit over three months, then was granted an early launch due to the pandemic.) TentLogix, the company entity, additionally pleaded responsible and was ordered to forfeit over $3 million. Though Albers was not personally charged, he signed off on the corporate’s responsible plea, courtroom data present. The corporate filed for chapter in 2020.
Hendry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Catastrophe Administration’s federal contracting work has been profitable for Albers. Final yr, he bought a $30 million home in Jupiter, Florida, that then ranked as the realm’s costliest dwelling.
Albers additionally has lately develop into a big donor to Republican campaigns, to which he’s given greater than $150,000 within the final yr alone. He and his spouse spent election evening at Mar-a-Lago in 2024 and as soon as co-chaired a charity fundraiser on the Trump Nationwide Golf Membership with the president’s son, Eric, and his spouse. They attended the “Crypto Ball,” a cryptocurrency occasion sponsored by Trump supporters within the digital forex business; contributors paid between $2,500 and $1 million for tickets. (The Trump Group didn’t reply to questions from ProPublica.)
Credit score:
Screenshot by ProPublica
Since late final yr, Catastrophe Administration has spent $210,000 lobbying Congress and the administration on immigration-related points, together with “funding associated to non permanent amenities.” The corporate had no prior historical past of lobbying, based on federal disclosures.
Catastrophe Administration’s share of the immigration detention contract for Fort Bliss might rank among the many firm’s largest contracts.
The Fort Bliss award comes as immigration arrests have soared in current months and ICE is working low on area to carry everybody it has detained. Prior to now, these arrested by ICE would largely be housed in brick-and-mortar detention amenities.
However in its urgency to extend deportations, the Trump administration has turned to contractors to construct so-called soft-sided amenities — tents with inflexible buildings inside — that may be arrange way more rapidly.
The administration has eyed army bases as places to arrange these new detention camps. In April, ICE introduced a $3.8 billion award to construct such a facility to Deployed Assets, which had operated the lion’s share of the soft-sided amenities used prior to now to quickly home immigrants getting into the nation alongside the southern border.
ICE abruptly canceled that contract simply days after it was introduced with out rationalization. Now it seems Catastrophe Administration might do a lot of that work. An business insider estimated to ProPublica that Catastrophe Administration’s slice of the $1.2 billion contract at Fort Bliss could possibly be value tons of of tens of millions for the corporate within the subsequent yr, although it’s not clear how the three contractors will cut up the work. Bloomberg first reported the whole worth of the Fort Bliss contract.
The power at Fort Bliss is predicted to be the primary of many. Earlier within the month, Trump signed a spending invoice that allocates $45 billion to construct new migrant detention websites. Specialists estimate this might roughly double the nation’s capability for immigration detention from round 50,000 individuals to greater than 100,000.
Mica Rosenberg contributed reporting. Pratheek Rebala, Kirsten Berg and Mario Ariza contributed analysis.
