While the world mobilizes to help Haiti dig out from last week’s devastating earthquake, private prison operator GEO Group could be preparing to profit from a “surge” of immigration detentions at a facility it operates in Guantanamo Bay.
Some have speculated that Haiti’s misery will lead to an increase in Haitians attempting the dangerous 600-mile boat journey to Florida. If the U.S. experiences a spike in migrants trying to enter the country without documents, we’ll likely do what we do best: lock them up. And it’s likely that these detentions will be managed by GEO, the nation’s second-biggest private prison company, reports blogger Tom Barry at the Center for International Policy.
GEO manages the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) at the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. The MOC has 130 beds, but GEO boasts that the prison “can house up to 500 detainees in a surge.” Planning to pack a facility to four-times capacity is certainly a red flag for potential abuse, but GEO usually charges the government a fixed rate per prisoner per day more bodies equals more dollars for GEO. The Obama administration, while planning to close the military detention facility at GITMO, has no plans to shutter MOC.
In fact, as State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley recently told reporters, “Guantanamo is going to be an enormously valuable asset as we go through this.”
FOX News reported on Friday that officials had not spotted any Haitian boats headed for the U.S. mainland since the earthquake, and Gen. Douglas Fraser says the U.S. is focused on relief efforts to improve the situation in Port-au-Prince. No official decision had been made on how to respond if Haitians did begin to seek U.S. shores in large numbers.
If GEO’s position to profit from Haiti’s misery wasn’t ugly enough, however, it gets worse. Halliburton could get in on the deal, too.
In 2006, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security renewed its contract with GEO to mange MOC through 2011, it also signed a $385-million deal with Halliburton subsidiary KBR to build detention facilities for up to 5,000 people in the case of emergencies. If we do indeed see an increase in Haitians attempting to enter the country, this could be the kind of emergency that triggers a cash cow for KBR.
I can’t deny that a massive spike in Haitians arriving on our shores would be an issue (though I think worries about such a spike are very likely exaggerated). We aren’t equipped to handle this humanitarian crisis in Florida, and the Obama administration is right to focus efforts on helping Haiti rebuild, rather than on accepting refugees. If we do accept refugees in the U.S., it wouldn’t be right (or wise) to issue a blanket amnesty for those that make it in boats without extending a hand to the millions left behind.
There will be some hard decisions to make, but ensuring that GEO and KBR don’t make profit from Haiti’s misery should be an easy call.
Photo Credit: UN Development Programme