Whatever happened to the $385 M (that's millions of dollars) contract awarded to Kellog-Brown & Root/Halliburton to build temporary immigration detention centers?
You know, the centers to be built for Homeland Security for an "influx of immigrants...natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space."
At the time this contract was announced waaaay back in 2006, a Homeland Security spokesperson stated "It's the type of contract that could be used in some kind of mass migration." This comment was followed by additional comments from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps talking head said "the centers could be at unused military sites or temporary structures...and would each hold up to 5,000 people." Just to set the record straight: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/national/04halliburton.html?_r=4&oref=login
Our media has reported that the South of the Border workforce has been returning home because of our current economic situation. With exception of New Orleans, our media has pretty much ignored recent hurricanes, flooding in the mid-West, so the States seem to be handling natural disasters well without the wringing of hands we saw with Fox News and Shepard Smith.
So just what are these potential new programs that might require additional detention space? Who are these people that Homeland Security thinks/feels might be part of a mass migration? Birds are biologically driven to migrate seasonally. Humans migrate for improved living conditions.
Even with the Cuban Boat crisis, the Cubans were absorbed into already existing military facilities. Granted, little known military installations were used for this, and a detention staff was needed because Cuba took advantage of the situation by emptying its prisons and mental institutions and we had a huge influx of criminals and crazies. Are we anticipating another boat crisis?
Better yet, who are these people who will need to be detained because of potential new programs? What new programs? What kind of programs require detention space? Detention connotes being held against one's will, and why would our government have a need for a program for detention? Just how does a government go about planning for an "unknown" event that will require detention?
It's the word detention that bothers me. I don't think one would use the word detain if the government were providing assistance to victims of natural disaster. Perhaps the better word for this would be shelter centers. That goes for whatever the government would view as mass migration. The word detention in this situation doesn't work for me either. The more apt words would might be migration centers or shelters or facilities or sites. We don't detain people for changing locations for jobs, improved access to resources, now do we? Are we talking (in my best condescending voice) about detaining our own citizens?
I don't know if any illegals were ever "detained" in any of these centers supposedly to be built by KBR/Halliburton, or if in fact any centers were even established. My casual reading leads me to believe that most illegals were turned loose soon after apprehension and they disappeared into the population. I could be wrong this tho.
I want to know the status of these detention centers. Were any actually built and are any of these sites manned by personnel. Are any U.S. citizens or non-citizens housed/detained in these sites. I also think the tax payer deserves an accounting of Three Hundred and Eighty Five Million dollars that belong to the citizenry of this country.
I want to know exactly what kind of potential new program is being envisioned that would require the planning and operating of detention centers that could hold 5,ooo people. Finally, who is going to man these detention centers if/when activated? Is this one of the new missions of Northern Command? Wish me luck in getting any answers.
See what happens when I am bored with prepping? I just go off on tangents, but perhaps not so far afield after all.
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