"Incredible. So many scandals it's hard to know where to start" - Florida journalist
"incredible report" - Maryland journalist
"very disturbing" - L.
"I read, with growing horror and alarm, that entire report, and it is truly nightmarish and hugely offensive what this
massively illegal, immoral, treasonous and evil organization called BCFS is doing to our country." - M.
"incredible report" - Maryland journalist
"very disturbing" - L.
"I read, with growing horror and alarm, that entire report, and it is truly nightmarish and hugely offensive what this
massively illegal, immoral, treasonous and evil organization called BCFS is doing to our country." - M.
Second Report: Child Shelter Contractor BCFS – The Mystery of the Missing Deliberations
by Liberato.US
April 6, 2017
“Religion flourished in greater purity, without than with the aid of government.” – James Madison
---
Highlights
This is the second report based on FOIA requests and litigation concerning the role of the government shelter contractor BCFS Health and Human Services in the border surge of summer 2014 (“BCFS HHS” or “BCFS” for short, but be advised there are related BCFS entities). The first report (dated October 23, 2014), based on the initial grant documents (award 90ZU0102 in the amount of $190,707,505), found many reasons to be concerned – importantly, the closing of three big shelters under suspicion of trying to escape unfavorable publicity - and posed many questions that had yet to be answered.
A second FOIA request was filed asking for all the oversight records on the grant, plus certain other items discussed below. The Obama administration agreed to begin providing records, but then reneged on its agreement without producing any records and stopped communicating. Consequently, suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia which resulted in the production of hundreds of documents.
It has been three years since the 2014 border surge. Unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have dropped out of the news and attention is now focused on Syrian refugee resettlement. But the two situations have important themes in common: big money, secrecy, and bible-flavored government contractors. Those themes play out in the findings below and will be of interest to those working the refugee resettlement issue.
The records obtained through litigation contain copious documentation of the points made in the first report but, rather than rehash old ground, the second report only discusses new findings. But first the news which shows, among other things, that UACs continued to pour over the border in great numbers until President Trump took office:
The Mystery of the Missing Deliberations
Imagine the government looking to spend almost $200 million on something that was front-page news, aborting the exercise mid-way through, relocating thousands of people as a result, and then claiming it has NO RECORD OF ANY DISCUSSION OF ANY OF THIS. That’s the situation in this case. Not only does it ‘strain credulity’ as lawyers like to say, it’s PREPOSTEROUS. Where is the discussion?
None of the records produced in this case contain any discussion of the controversies swirling around the grant or the repurposing of the grant after three big BCFS UAC shelters were closed prematurely. It is simply not credible that there was no discussion of these matters among government officials. There should be records, but none were produced despite a comprehensive FOIA request. Either government officials are lying and are withholding records they know exist, or the entire discussion took place through means intended to skirt the open records requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (e.g., solely over the phone, through personal email accounts, etc.).
The government was challenged in court to come clean – whether through the FOIA case or a separate briefing on the matter – but failed to do so. A serious breakdown in representative government has taken place. We the People are entitled to know ‘what the government was up to’ in closing the big shelters but, in this instance, we have deliberately been left in the dark. The reasons for that appear to be nakedly political.
Controversies – The UAC shelters run by BCFS were headline news in the summer of 2014. The shelters were embroiled in a number of highly publicized controversies, as detailed in Liberato.US’ first report:
The FOIA request asked for all narrative reports relating to BCFS’ UAC shelter grant. These were the shelters generating the controversies. The government produced some narrative reports, but NONE of them discussed the controversies at all. Not one word. This is not believable. The government was challenged to produce the discussion that surely must have taken place regarding these controversies, but it deliberately chose not to do so. Disclosure would have settled once and for all whether the Obama administration closed the three big shelters for political reasons, e.g., to minimize resistance to its UAC resettlement policies.
Repurposing the Grant - Moreover, the FOIA request specifically asked for all:
There was no response to the request beyond an indication that BCFS would continue to be funded and was to receive $17 million for UAC shelters in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, and that a discussion of the remaining $91 million in unobligated funds would take place at a later time (transmittal letter 8/18/15).
Three big shelters run by BCFS were closed prematurely without explanation (e.g., Ft Sill opened on June 12, 2014 and closed ahead of schedule on August 6, 2014). There were news reports that the UACs from these shelters were dispersed to 150 smaller shelters - their locations deliberately cloaked – throughout the country. Suspicions were reported at the time that the Obama administration was deliberately hiding the ball from the American people and was repurposing the grant to de-fang opposition to the border surge and UAC resettlement. Out of sight, out of mind. No more big targets.
What was wrong with the big shelters? Why were they closed prematurely? Why were the smaller shelters better, given the full panoply of services (legal, medical, educational, psychological, recreational, etc.) that had to be assembled at each location? How did uprooting the obvious economies of scale make sense? What happened to the mobile vans and all the other gear used in the closed shelters? The premature closures had to be an extravagant waste of money (e.g., the closures came after $165,000 was spent to replace bedroom and classroom furniture and another $140,000 was wasted on classroom upgrades).
If all of this was on the up-and-up and there was a logical explanation for this bizarre turn of events, the Obama administration could have proffered it. Instead, despite being challenged in court to do so, the Obama administration refused to disclose any records discussing the repurposing of the grant and remained silent about the controversies noted above, as well as about the dispersal of UACs to 150 smaller shelters throughout the country. Why did Obama administration officials hide the ball, if not for political reasons?
As filed in court:
Government Contractor, Not a ‘Religious Charity’
As anticipated in the first report, big UAC grants pushed BCFS’ total revenue way up - $196, 640,172 versus $70,384,069 the previous year. Government grants were 90 percent of total revenue the previous year ($63,321,664 / $70,384,069), but 99 percent this time ($194,600,062 / $196,640,172), buttressing the conclusion that BCFS HHS is properly viewed as a self-interested government contractor, not as a religious charity. [Tax Form 990 (BCFS HHS - 2013) (tax year ending 8/31/14)]
A final financial report received under the FOIA request indicates that BCFS HHS was paid $163,941,192.57 on the grant in question through September 30, 2014.
So what does BCFS do with all this taxpayer money? They give away flat-screen TVs and thousand-dollar shopping sprees, for one thing. From BCFS’ twitter feed:
Miguel Nunez won a 32" flat screen from our Lubbock center….
2:58 PM - 25 Jun 2015
https://twitter.com/search?q=bcfs%20flat%20screen&src=typd
Our Lubbock HS & college grads had a @Target shopping spree w/$1k for household goods needed for "life on their own!"
https://twitter.com/search?q=bcfs%20shopping&src=typd
Education and ‘Self-Sufficiency’ Grants
BCFS also gives away money for education and living expenses, probably to illegal aliens.
According to a tax form 990 filing, BCFS HHS gave education training vouchers (ETV grants) to individuals in the U.S. In the 2013 tax year (ending 8/31/14), BCFS HHS gave a total of $2,797,557 to 1,359 recipients (over $2,000 apiece, up from an average $1,800 the year before).
BCFS HHS also gave ORR Allowance Grants to individuals in the U.S. that same year - $6,021 to 102 recipients (roughly $60 apiece). Recipients spend these grants on food, housing, transportation, and other items, thereby becoming, what the government calls, ‘self-sufficient’.
As noted above, BCFS HHS got 99 percent of its revenue from the government in the year in question. These vouchers and grants, for all intents and purposes, went straight from the U.S. government to the recipients, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.
A FOIA request was made for all records in ACF’s possession pertaining to these vouchers and grants. The answer came back: no responsive documents. Not only does the government not know what is happening with this money, it isn’t the least bit curious. Nor is it the least bit concerned that U.S. taxpayer funds might be getting into the hands of illegal aliens without appropriation or approval by Congress. If that’s the case, and we’re going to give away free money to illegal aliens for food, transportation, etc., shouldn’t we at least have a discussion about it first?
In any event, no responsive records means there was absolutely no oversight by ACF of millions of taxpayer dollars. ACF has absolutely no idea whether these funds were disbursed in a proper manner or not. Where’s the accountability?
Lobbying Expenditures
As noted in the first report, BCFS failed to properly disclose its lobbying activities. BCFS has spent $210,000 on lobbying since 2006, but hid such expenditures as ‘functional expenses’ or ‘professional fees’ on its 990 tax forms.
BCFS represented that it didn’t lobby in tax year 2013 and, correspondingly, reported zero in lobbying expenses in a later tax filing (Tax Form 990 for BCFS HHS for 2013 [tax year ending 8/31/14]). The possibility remains that BCFS continues to lobby and still hides its lobbying expenses under ‘functional expenses’ or some such rubric, as noted in the first report.
Child Sex Abuse by BCFS Staff
Among the records the government produced is a trip report made necessary by allegations of sex abuse by staff at a BCFS shelter in Texas in October 2012.
According to the report, a UAC related that he and a youth care worker “were a couple and that they would go inside a closet to kiss, hold hands and touch each other’s legs.” One youth care worker was fired for failing to report the incident after being told about it by a UAC, but BCFS had to be told by ORR to include her termination letter in her file. The worker who engaged in the abuse was only suspended pending the results of an investigation. Regarding the suspended perpetrator:
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote in October 2015 about child abuse by ORR shelter workers. She recited one published report indicating “over one-hundred `significant incident reports` obtained from HHS through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request detailed instances where children were abused, sexually or otherwise, by shelter workers at ORR facilities between March 2011 and March 2013.” Breitbart
Questionable Expenditures
The first report listed a number of dubious expenditures – outrageous food costs, cable television, etc. Records disclosed through the FOIA litigation in this case document additional questionable expenditures:
Apparent Violations of Anti-Proselytization Rules
According to an HHS website (What are the rules on funding religious activity with Federal money?):
Not Little Angels
Anyone concerned about proselytization perhaps need not worry too much. Whatever BCFS did, it did not succeed in turning UACs into little angels. Records released by the government document UACs:
Foreign Activities
As noted in the first report, BCFS conducts activities outside the United States, giving assistance to foreign governments, organizations, or individuals. The first report posed the question of whether or not BCFS spends money in Central America to encourage illegal UAC immigration to the U.S., where UACs conveniently will end up in BCFS shelters. An obvious question is whether the government knows anything about BCFS’ foreign activities.
The second FOIA request asked for records showing:
The request went beyond BCFS HHS and covered all BCFS entities. With respect to both of these inquiries, the answer came back no responsive documents.
Thus, the government has no idea what the BCFS conglomerate might be up to in foreign countries. The ‘seed money’ scenario sketched above cannot be ruled out. The tax form 990 BCFS HHS – 2013 [tax year ending 8/31/14], at Schedule F, indicates that BCFS HHS made a grant in Sri Lanka and conducted Program Services in “South Asia” and “North America”. The previous 990 specified activities in Mexico, so BCFS, by switching to the more vague description “North America”, may be trying to hide activities in Central American countries from where UACs originate. The most recent 990 discloses a cash grant in Sri Lanka, but no provides details regarding BCFS’ activities in “North America”. Schedule F concludes by saying BCFS provides financial support for “transportation” in its foreign activities. Transportation to where? BCFS may have nothing to hide in this regard, but it sure acts like it does. Moreover, the willful blindness to BCFS’ foreign activities on the part of our government does not exactly inspire confidence.
Poor Management
Numerous records the government produced document poor management at BCFS shelters. Specifically:
In sum, government records documented a number of operational and financial defects in BCFS’ management of this grant. Poor as it was, BCFS’ management of this grant was good enough for government work, as the TAGGS system shows BCFS HHS continues to get contracts from HHS.
Not only did BCFS poorly manage the grant, the government (HHS / ORR / ACF) poorly managed the oversight of the grant. GAO specifies numerous items that are supposed to be included in the oversight of every federal grant. The FOIA request asked for records documenting the completion of these items with respect to the grant at issue. However, ACF’s answer to the FOIA request came back ‘no responsive records’ with respect to:
Coda – Emergency Shelter 2016
However bad the decision to close the three big UAC shelters looked at the height of the controversies in 2014, it looks worse now. When UAC numbers surged again in the summer of 2016, a 30-agency task force had to scramble to find more shelter space (see news stories above). BCFS was given another grant which, with supplements, called for up to $160 million dollars to be spent on an 1,800-bed emergency shelter at Ft. Bliss ((Doña Ana Range Complex). This enormously expensive, noncompetitive grant (90XR0028), was for a tent city (240 UACs to a tent), to operate from August 15, 2016 to December 31, 2016. (The number of UACs to be housed kept changing in the records received from FOIA requests - up to 5,000 in some of the records.)
The projected cost of this grant was frightful. Food was $63 a day for each UAC. By comparison, New York can feed its inmates for $2.84 a day. Staff stayed in hotels at $125 a night. Expensive videoconferencing, fire trucks, ambulances, and mobile command platforms were to be ordered. The cost of this temporary, emergency shelter was $731 or $832 a day per UAC (the records vary). By comparison, UACs cost $329/day at a plush shelter with a petting zoo run by another contractor. The life of the Ft. Bliss emergency shelter was extended, but then the number of UACs dropped off and the shelter was slated to close a month earlier than planned on March 1, 2017.
One consequence of closing the three big BCFS shelters in 2014 was the necessity of housing new UACs in temporary shelter two years later at twice the cost – another reason why the missing deliberations described above should be brought into public view.
# # #
by Liberato.US
April 6, 2017
“Religion flourished in greater purity, without than with the aid of government.” – James Madison
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Highlights
- The government claims not to have any records discussing the controversies generated by this high-profile case.
- BCFS gives away flat-screen TVs and thousand-dollar shopping sprees with your money.
- Based on records produced in response to FOIA requests, it cannot be ruled out that BCFS is funneling taxpayer money to illegal aliens without congressional approval.
- The records in this case document an instance of child sex abuse by BCFS shelter workers, which BCFS resisted putting in the workers’ personnel files.
- BCFS took UACs to church so many times that government anti-proselytization rules may have been violated.
- UACs are not little angels as portrayed by the Refugee Industrial Complex and complicit media. The records in this case show UACs fighting, lying, stealing, and using drugs, among other things.
- The government is willfully blind to BCFS’ foreign activities. It cannot be ruled out that BCFS spends U.S. tax dollars in other countries steering UACs to its government-funded shelters in the U.S.
- The records document poor management - a number of operational and financial defects - in BCFS’ management of this grant.
This is the second report based on FOIA requests and litigation concerning the role of the government shelter contractor BCFS Health and Human Services in the border surge of summer 2014 (“BCFS HHS” or “BCFS” for short, but be advised there are related BCFS entities). The first report (dated October 23, 2014), based on the initial grant documents (award 90ZU0102 in the amount of $190,707,505), found many reasons to be concerned – importantly, the closing of three big shelters under suspicion of trying to escape unfavorable publicity - and posed many questions that had yet to be answered.
A second FOIA request was filed asking for all the oversight records on the grant, plus certain other items discussed below. The Obama administration agreed to begin providing records, but then reneged on its agreement without producing any records and stopped communicating. Consequently, suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia which resulted in the production of hundreds of documents.
It has been three years since the 2014 border surge. Unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have dropped out of the news and attention is now focused on Syrian refugee resettlement. But the two situations have important themes in common: big money, secrecy, and bible-flavored government contractors. Those themes play out in the findings below and will be of interest to those working the refugee resettlement issue.
The records obtained through litigation contain copious documentation of the points made in the first report but, rather than rehash old ground, the second report only discusses new findings. But first the news which shows, among other things, that UACs continued to pour over the border in great numbers until President Trump took office:
- October 2014 – UACs at a Southwest Key facility get petting zoo, other plush accommodations at a cost to taxpayers of $329 a day per child. Washington Times
- July 2015 - HHS refugee program releases teens directly into hands of human traffickers; some UACs forced to work on egg farms in Ohio. Columbus Dispatch
- August 2015 – ICE alone spent $58.2 million over two years to handle UACs. Immigration Reform Law Institute (figure incomplete for numerous reasons)
- “[T]he government has either failed to properly document those costs, or is refusing to reveal them.” Breitbart
- “[T]he government has either failed to properly document those costs, or is refusing to reveal them.” Breitbart
- October 2015 – UACs failing to appear for court dates. Washington Times
- October 2015 – Deficiencies in handling UACs noted: child sex abuse and other forms of abuse occurring in shelters without adequate follow-up or prosecution; ORR failing to file annual reports. Breitbart
- November 2015 – “The Obama administration released thousands of illegal immigrant children to sponsors with criminal records, including arrests on charges of child molestation, human trafficking and homicide….” Washington Times
- November 2015 – “Illegal immigrant children, non-Mexicans surge across border at record rate”. Washington Times
- December 2015 – Flow of UACs up 106 percent from previous year. Truth Revolt
- December 2015 – Government asks BCFS HHS to expand shelter to handle new influx of UACs in Rio Grande Valley. Brownsville Herald
- January 2016 – UAC numbers set to surpass 2014 border surge. Refugee Resettlement Watch
- January 2016 – “Texas AG: Obama Admin. Resettled Syrians ‘Under Cloak Of Secrecy’”. Daily Caller
- January 2016 - Two Central American teens charged in execution-style killing of Massachusetts man; came to U.S. as UACs. Judicial Watch
- February 2016 – Obama administration plan to house influx of UACs on military bases sparks angry opposition. Bloomberg
- February 2016 – GAO report critical of ORR handling of UACs: no system for tracking UACs awaiting court decisions; incomplete files; contractors operate with little oversight; UACs given wrong amount of medicine leading to accidental overdoses. Washington Post
- February 2016 - Of more than 127,000 illegal alien minors apprehended over last two and a half years, only 4,680 have been sent back. Washington Examiner
- March 2016 – Foster homes for UACs not vetted for child abuse or neglect. Senator Grassley letter
- April 2016 - Drunk, street-racing alien killer entered U.S. as UAC. Bear Witness Central
- April 2016 - CDC warns shelter workers: many UACs have tuberculosis; some are really adults so guard your personal safety. Judicial Watch
- April 2016 – “Illegal immigrant families crossing border at record pace in 2016”. Washington Times
- April 2016 – 80 percent of UAC sponsored are illegal aliens themselves. Associated Press story:
- May 2016 - Obama administration effort to fly non-persecuted UACs into U.S. as ‘refugees’ is thinly disguised family reunification program. Center for Immigration Studies
- May 2016 - 5,219 UACs entered in April. Washington Times
- June 2016 – “Illegals Are Kidnapping Children to Appear as Families to Avoid Detention”. Truth Revolt
- June 2016 – “Illegal border crossings of families this year already surpasses all of 2015”. Washington Times
- June 2016 - From Twitter:
BCFS @BCFS_ Jun 1
BCFS' international arm @CERIkids has expanded to serve INDIA! http://goo.gl/Z3omzk - July 2016 - Obama administration expands family reunification program, screening Central American refugee minors in home country. West Virginia Public Broadcasting
- August 2016 - “Fort Bliss complex to house immigrant children”. El Paso Times
- September 2016 – MS-13 gang recruiting among resettled UACs. Fox News
- September 2016 – Obama administration efforts to stem flow of UACs fail; 2016 numbers to be on par with 2014 border surge year. Washington Examiner
- October 2016 - “’Family Units’ Entering U.S. Via Mexico Doubles, Unaccompanied Minors Up 52%”. Judicial Watch
- November 2016 – 30-agency UAC task force scrambles to find more shelter space. Breitbart
- November 2016 – UACs to cost taxpayers almost a billion dollars in FY 2017. Refugee Resettlement Watch
- December 2016 – Apprehensions of UACs up 23 percent Oct-Dec 2016 versus year earlier. Breitbart
- December 2016 – Government spends $100 million on UAC U.S. travel. Bear Witness Central
- December 2016 – Government admitted 101 “significant incident reports” of sexual abuse of UACs in contractor facilities in 2014, but does not keep current statistics; Rep. Marsha Blackburn says curtain must be pulled back on the problem. Daily Caller
- December 2016 – Government diverts funds from other programs to pay for influx of UACs. Refugee Resettlement Watch
- February 2017 - “Temporary Fort Bliss shelter for immigrant kids to shut”. AZCentral
- March 2017 – UAC crossings fell 40 percent in January and another 40 percent in February, as Trump border enforcement starts. American Thinker
- Final Note on the News – Notice that none of the media stories above name BCFS. BCFS has done a very good job of keeping a low profile and staying out of the news, undoubtedly a lesson learned from the high-profile controversies swirling around it in the summer of 2014.
The Mystery of the Missing Deliberations
Imagine the government looking to spend almost $200 million on something that was front-page news, aborting the exercise mid-way through, relocating thousands of people as a result, and then claiming it has NO RECORD OF ANY DISCUSSION OF ANY OF THIS. That’s the situation in this case. Not only does it ‘strain credulity’ as lawyers like to say, it’s PREPOSTEROUS. Where is the discussion?
None of the records produced in this case contain any discussion of the controversies swirling around the grant or the repurposing of the grant after three big BCFS UAC shelters were closed prematurely. It is simply not credible that there was no discussion of these matters among government officials. There should be records, but none were produced despite a comprehensive FOIA request. Either government officials are lying and are withholding records they know exist, or the entire discussion took place through means intended to skirt the open records requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (e.g., solely over the phone, through personal email accounts, etc.).
The government was challenged in court to come clean – whether through the FOIA case or a separate briefing on the matter – but failed to do so. A serious breakdown in representative government has taken place. We the People are entitled to know ‘what the government was up to’ in closing the big shelters but, in this instance, we have deliberately been left in the dark. The reasons for that appear to be nakedly political.
Controversies – The UAC shelters run by BCFS were headline news in the summer of 2014. The shelters were embroiled in a number of highly publicized controversies, as detailed in Liberato.US’ first report:
- BCFS planned to convert a luxury resort hotel into a UAC shelter
- BCFS was engaged in lobbying activities, the only UAC shelter contractor to do so
- BCFS security staff (self-styled “Brown Shirts”) threatened to arrest doctors and nurses for disclosing illness and contagion threats at the shelters
- BCFS refused to let Congressman Jim Bridenstine inspect the Ft. Sill shelter in his home state of Oklahoma
- BCFS blocked reporters from conducting interviews and filming shelter facilities
- The Obama administration closed three big BCFS UAC shelters under suspicion of trying to avoid unfavorable publicity.
The FOIA request asked for all narrative reports relating to BCFS’ UAC shelter grant. These were the shelters generating the controversies. The government produced some narrative reports, but NONE of them discussed the controversies at all. Not one word. This is not believable. The government was challenged to produce the discussion that surely must have taken place regarding these controversies, but it deliberately chose not to do so. Disclosure would have settled once and for all whether the Obama administration closed the three big shelters for political reasons, e.g., to minimize resistance to its UAC resettlement policies.
Repurposing the Grant - Moreover, the FOIA request specifically asked for all:
- Discussions of the repurposing of the grant after the premature closings of the Ft. Sill and Lackland AFB UAC shelters, including but not limited to requests, approvals, assessment of funds wasted on initial project design, and viability of the project after funds redirected
- This includes all emails between ORR and all BCFS affiliates discussing the shelter closures, what was to happen to previous grant monies, and whether BCFS would run any of the 150 smaller shelters upon repurposing grant award 90ZU0102
There was no response to the request beyond an indication that BCFS would continue to be funded and was to receive $17 million for UAC shelters in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, and that a discussion of the remaining $91 million in unobligated funds would take place at a later time (transmittal letter 8/18/15).
Three big shelters run by BCFS were closed prematurely without explanation (e.g., Ft Sill opened on June 12, 2014 and closed ahead of schedule on August 6, 2014). There were news reports that the UACs from these shelters were dispersed to 150 smaller shelters - their locations deliberately cloaked – throughout the country. Suspicions were reported at the time that the Obama administration was deliberately hiding the ball from the American people and was repurposing the grant to de-fang opposition to the border surge and UAC resettlement. Out of sight, out of mind. No more big targets.
What was wrong with the big shelters? Why were they closed prematurely? Why were the smaller shelters better, given the full panoply of services (legal, medical, educational, psychological, recreational, etc.) that had to be assembled at each location? How did uprooting the obvious economies of scale make sense? What happened to the mobile vans and all the other gear used in the closed shelters? The premature closures had to be an extravagant waste of money (e.g., the closures came after $165,000 was spent to replace bedroom and classroom furniture and another $140,000 was wasted on classroom upgrades).
If all of this was on the up-and-up and there was a logical explanation for this bizarre turn of events, the Obama administration could have proffered it. Instead, despite being challenged in court to do so, the Obama administration refused to disclose any records discussing the repurposing of the grant and remained silent about the controversies noted above, as well as about the dispersal of UACs to 150 smaller shelters throughout the country. Why did Obama administration officials hide the ball, if not for political reasons?
As filed in court:
- Plaintiff challenges the government not to hide behind this litigation but to come clean about what really went on in this matter, whether discussions were memorialized in responsive records or not. It is not credible that HHS officials never discussed BCFS’ lobbying expenditures after the story made news. It is not credible that ORR staff never talked about BCFS’ refusal to admit Congressman Bridenstine to the Ft. Sill shelter, or about the threats to nurses and doctors from BCFS’ ‘Brown Shirts’. It is not credible that headquarters personnel on site at Ft. Sill did not correspond with or write memos to higher-ups at HHS about any of the controversies happening there. Political hot potatoes surely would have been passed to political appointees somewhere in HHS. It is not credible that the government never discussed the other controversies swirling around this situation, or failed to discuss the repurposing of the grant in the run-up to closing the three big shelters ahead of schedule. Where are the memos showing the results of that decision? What reason was there for closing the three big shelters early if not to get the matter out of the news and tamp down political opposition to the UAC surge? The government has an opportunity to release all relevant records and brief Plaintiff on what really transpired, including the decision to walk away from the settlement agreement it reached with the Plaintiff in this case before suit was filed. Who took that decision and why? Who else knew about it and approved? How can that decision possibly mean anything other than the government was trying to hide something? The government should take this opportunity and release all the facts, so the public can examine them in the cold light of day. The government is on notice that failure to do so will be reported.
Government Contractor, Not a ‘Religious Charity’
As anticipated in the first report, big UAC grants pushed BCFS’ total revenue way up - $196, 640,172 versus $70,384,069 the previous year. Government grants were 90 percent of total revenue the previous year ($63,321,664 / $70,384,069), but 99 percent this time ($194,600,062 / $196,640,172), buttressing the conclusion that BCFS HHS is properly viewed as a self-interested government contractor, not as a religious charity. [Tax Form 990 (BCFS HHS - 2013) (tax year ending 8/31/14)]
A final financial report received under the FOIA request indicates that BCFS HHS was paid $163,941,192.57 on the grant in question through September 30, 2014.
So what does BCFS do with all this taxpayer money? They give away flat-screen TVs and thousand-dollar shopping sprees, for one thing. From BCFS’ twitter feed:
Miguel Nunez won a 32" flat screen from our Lubbock center….
2:58 PM - 25 Jun 2015
https://twitter.com/search?q=bcfs%20flat%20screen&src=typd
Our Lubbock HS & college grads had a @Target shopping spree w/$1k for household goods needed for "life on their own!"
https://twitter.com/search?q=bcfs%20shopping&src=typd
Education and ‘Self-Sufficiency’ Grants
BCFS also gives away money for education and living expenses, probably to illegal aliens.
According to a tax form 990 filing, BCFS HHS gave education training vouchers (ETV grants) to individuals in the U.S. In the 2013 tax year (ending 8/31/14), BCFS HHS gave a total of $2,797,557 to 1,359 recipients (over $2,000 apiece, up from an average $1,800 the year before).
BCFS HHS also gave ORR Allowance Grants to individuals in the U.S. that same year - $6,021 to 102 recipients (roughly $60 apiece). Recipients spend these grants on food, housing, transportation, and other items, thereby becoming, what the government calls, ‘self-sufficient’.
As noted above, BCFS HHS got 99 percent of its revenue from the government in the year in question. These vouchers and grants, for all intents and purposes, went straight from the U.S. government to the recipients, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.
A FOIA request was made for all records in ACF’s possession pertaining to these vouchers and grants. The answer came back: no responsive documents. Not only does the government not know what is happening with this money, it isn’t the least bit curious. Nor is it the least bit concerned that U.S. taxpayer funds might be getting into the hands of illegal aliens without appropriation or approval by Congress. If that’s the case, and we’re going to give away free money to illegal aliens for food, transportation, etc., shouldn’t we at least have a discussion about it first?
In any event, no responsive records means there was absolutely no oversight by ACF of millions of taxpayer dollars. ACF has absolutely no idea whether these funds were disbursed in a proper manner or not. Where’s the accountability?
Lobbying Expenditures
As noted in the first report, BCFS failed to properly disclose its lobbying activities. BCFS has spent $210,000 on lobbying since 2006, but hid such expenditures as ‘functional expenses’ or ‘professional fees’ on its 990 tax forms.
BCFS represented that it didn’t lobby in tax year 2013 and, correspondingly, reported zero in lobbying expenses in a later tax filing (Tax Form 990 for BCFS HHS for 2013 [tax year ending 8/31/14]). The possibility remains that BCFS continues to lobby and still hides its lobbying expenses under ‘functional expenses’ or some such rubric, as noted in the first report.
Child Sex Abuse by BCFS Staff
Among the records the government produced is a trip report made necessary by allegations of sex abuse by staff at a BCFS shelter in Texas in October 2012.
According to the report, a UAC related that he and a youth care worker “were a couple and that they would go inside a closet to kiss, hold hands and touch each other’s legs.” One youth care worker was fired for failing to report the incident after being told about it by a UAC, but BCFS had to be told by ORR to include her termination letter in her file. The worker who engaged in the abuse was only suspended pending the results of an investigation. Regarding the suspended perpetrator:
- Her suspension was not documented on her file. ORR told BCFS management to include the latter in her file. BCFS stated that they had not done it since they were waiting for the State Licensing investigation to be finalized and thought that only if found guilty, they would have had to include the information on her file. BCFS will comply with ORR’s request and document the suspension in the personnel file regardless of the result of the investigation.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote in October 2015 about child abuse by ORR shelter workers. She recited one published report indicating “over one-hundred `significant incident reports` obtained from HHS through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request detailed instances where children were abused, sexually or otherwise, by shelter workers at ORR facilities between March 2011 and March 2013.” Breitbart
Questionable Expenditures
The first report listed a number of dubious expenditures – outrageous food costs, cable television, etc. Records disclosed through the FOIA litigation in this case document additional questionable expenditures:
- Stupid staff trainings (e.g., ‘How to Give Effective Praise’)
- The regulations require a lot of counseling sessions, so a lot of the topics chosen for group counseling, community meetings, etc. ended up being pretty silly –
- ‘Relaxation Strategies’
- ‘Being Grateful’
- ‘Celebration of Life’
- ‘Create Your Own Country’ (hmm…. really?)
- ‘Emotions Bingo’
- ‘Self Body Image Among Youth’
- How UACs see themselves in 5-10 years using play-doh
- Similarly, vocational classes must be provided, but ‘Cupcakes and Pizza Creations’?
- Recreational outings to golf and Houston Astro’s professional baseball games
Apparent Violations of Anti-Proselytization Rules
According to an HHS website (What are the rules on funding religious activity with Federal money?):
- The United States Supreme Court has said that faith-based organizations may not use direct government support to support "inherently religious" activities. Basically, it means you cannot use any part of a direct Federal grant to fund religious worship, instruction, or proselytization. Instead, organizations may use government money only to support the non-religious social services that they provide.
- taking UACs to church on a regular basis
- holding group counseling sessions on ‘Spirituality’ led by a pastor
- saying prayers at community meetings
- having a community meeting on ‘Rules in Religious Services’
- conducting an ‘interfaith’ with hundreds of UACs in attendance
- provoking 59 ‘spiritual decisions’ and 47 ‘spiritual renewals’
- having a concert with a Christian musical artist and a Christian guest speaker
- offering a vocational education class in scripture posters and church festivals
- passing off church activities as ‘recreation’ (with 122 UACs)
Not Little Angels
Anyone concerned about proselytization perhaps need not worry too much. Whatever BCFS did, it did not succeed in turning UACs into little angels. Records released by the government document UACs:
- Having STDs
- Taking illegal drugs (a caregiver was under investigation for supplying them in one instance)
- Needing counseling on not destroying the furniture
- Stealing from other UACs
- Fighting
- Exposing genitalia
- Breaking a window and escaping
- Complaining because the flag of a home country was taken down
- Being removed for being over 18 (possibly lying about their age)
Foreign Activities
As noted in the first report, BCFS conducts activities outside the United States, giving assistance to foreign governments, organizations, or individuals. The first report posed the question of whether or not BCFS spends money in Central America to encourage illegal UAC immigration to the U.S., where UACs conveniently will end up in BCFS shelters. An obvious question is whether the government knows anything about BCFS’ foreign activities.
The second FOIA request asked for records showing:
- why BCFS maintains an office, employees, or agents outside of the United States
- why BCFS gives grants or assistance to foreign governments, organizations, or individuals
The request went beyond BCFS HHS and covered all BCFS entities. With respect to both of these inquiries, the answer came back no responsive documents.
Thus, the government has no idea what the BCFS conglomerate might be up to in foreign countries. The ‘seed money’ scenario sketched above cannot be ruled out. The tax form 990 BCFS HHS – 2013 [tax year ending 8/31/14], at Schedule F, indicates that BCFS HHS made a grant in Sri Lanka and conducted Program Services in “South Asia” and “North America”. The previous 990 specified activities in Mexico, so BCFS, by switching to the more vague description “North America”, may be trying to hide activities in Central American countries from where UACs originate. The most recent 990 discloses a cash grant in Sri Lanka, but no provides details regarding BCFS’ activities in “North America”. Schedule F concludes by saying BCFS provides financial support for “transportation” in its foreign activities. Transportation to where? BCFS may have nothing to hide in this regard, but it sure acts like it does. Moreover, the willful blindness to BCFS’ foreign activities on the part of our government does not exactly inspire confidence.
Poor Management
Numerous records the government produced document poor management at BCFS shelters. Specifically:
- There were numerous complaints from UACs about not getting enough food. (How do you go hungry on a $75 a day food allowance? Where did the money go?)
- UAC physical exams were not performed in the time required.
- Case files were missing several types of documentation (e.g., mandatory child abuse statements, legal services, educational assessments, educational records, prescriptions, individual and group counseling sessions, community meetings, outdoor exercise, community outings, weekly case manager meetings, etc.). UACs reported they did not meet with their case managers every week as required.
- UACs signed grievance procedure acknowledgements but did not understand the process, interviews showed. Grievance binders were not maintained, with the most recent grievances being from three years in the past.
- Vocational education was not provided to UACs in the amount required.
- Medical information was not communicated between shifts with the result in one instance that a UAC did not receive four days of prescribed medication. Other problems with shift hand-offs were noted.
- BCFS did not provide the required number of education hours in the summer.
- Personnel files were also missing paperwork (e.g., substantiation of required training including recognition of common health and mental health diagnoses).
- Some staff did not receive the required number of training hours.
- There were numerous facilities maintenance problems (e.g., broken drawers, rusted ceiling vents, etc.)
In sum, government records documented a number of operational and financial defects in BCFS’ management of this grant. Poor as it was, BCFS’ management of this grant was good enough for government work, as the TAGGS system shows BCFS HHS continues to get contracts from HHS.
Not only did BCFS poorly manage the grant, the government (HHS / ORR / ACF) poorly managed the oversight of the grant. GAO specifies numerous items that are supposed to be included in the oversight of every federal grant. The FOIA request asked for records documenting the completion of these items with respect to the grant at issue. However, ACF’s answer to the FOIA request came back ‘no responsive records’ with respect to:
- assessment of whether duties were delivered on time and within budget
- comparisons of monetary drawdowns to project progress and task fulfillment
- assessment of whether ACF complied with all requirements of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010
Coda – Emergency Shelter 2016
However bad the decision to close the three big UAC shelters looked at the height of the controversies in 2014, it looks worse now. When UAC numbers surged again in the summer of 2016, a 30-agency task force had to scramble to find more shelter space (see news stories above). BCFS was given another grant which, with supplements, called for up to $160 million dollars to be spent on an 1,800-bed emergency shelter at Ft. Bliss ((Doña Ana Range Complex). This enormously expensive, noncompetitive grant (90XR0028), was for a tent city (240 UACs to a tent), to operate from August 15, 2016 to December 31, 2016. (The number of UACs to be housed kept changing in the records received from FOIA requests - up to 5,000 in some of the records.)
The projected cost of this grant was frightful. Food was $63 a day for each UAC. By comparison, New York can feed its inmates for $2.84 a day. Staff stayed in hotels at $125 a night. Expensive videoconferencing, fire trucks, ambulances, and mobile command platforms were to be ordered. The cost of this temporary, emergency shelter was $731 or $832 a day per UAC (the records vary). By comparison, UACs cost $329/day at a plush shelter with a petting zoo run by another contractor. The life of the Ft. Bliss emergency shelter was extended, but then the number of UACs dropped off and the shelter was slated to close a month earlier than planned on March 1, 2017.
One consequence of closing the three big BCFS shelters in 2014 was the necessity of housing new UACs in temporary shelter two years later at twice the cost – another reason why the missing deliberations described above should be brought into public view.
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