Began planning back in January to relocate children across country.
Over the last several weeks, the news media has exploded with reports of what President Obama has labeled an “urgent humanitarian situation” – a flood of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border illegally from Mexico.
A post at the FedBizOpps.gov website, however, reveals the Department of Homeland Security has been expecting and planning for this “urgent situation” since January.
The post, placed online Jan. 29, alerts private businesses that the DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, would be seeking sources willing to serve as “escort services for unaccompanied alien children.”
According to the posted description of services sought, DHS and ICE have “a continuing and mission critical responsibility for accepting custody of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from U.S. Border Patrol and other Federal agencies and transporting these juveniles to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters located throughout the continental United States.”
The post even clarifies, “There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total,” and explains the contractor hired may need to provide temporary shelter and showers, as bed space for the UAC may be “unavailable nationwide for extended periods of time.”
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