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GAO-20-321R 1 (2020-03-11)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeawi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 March 11, 2020 Congressional Requesters Border Security: U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Management of a Temporary Facility in Texas Raised Concerns about Resources Used Beginning in fall 2018, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) experienced a significant increase in the number of individuals apprehended at or between U.S. ports of entry along the southwest border.1 Apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol (Border Patrol) increased from nearly 400,000 individuals in fiscal year 2018 to over 850,000 in fiscal year 2019, an increase of 115 percent, according to CBP data.2 The increase in individuals apprehended resulted in overcrowded and difficult humanitarian conditions in CBP short-term processing and holding facilities.3 To help address this issue, in May 2019, CBP determined it needed a temporary soft-sided facility for processing and holding single adults in the El Paso Border Patrol sector, based on the significant increase in apprehensions in that sector.4 Specifically, according to CBP data, total Border Patrol apprehensions of single adults in the El Paso sector increased from nearly 14,000 individuals in fiscal year 2018 to over 33,000 in fiscal year 2019, an increase of 140 percent. On July 3, 2019, CBP placed a sole-source, firm-fixed price delivery order with a 3- month initial period of performance and five 2-month options for building, operating, and maintaining a temporary, soft-sided facility in Tornillo, Texas with a capacity to hold 2,500 single 1Within DHS, CBP's U.S. Border Patrol apprehends individuals between ports of entry, and Office of Field Operations (OFO) encounters individuals that arrive at ports of entry. According to CBP officials, OFO encounters aliens (instead of apprehending them) because individuals do not enter the United States at ports of entry until OFO officers have processed them. For the purposes of this report, we use the term apprehend to describe both Border Patrol and OFO's first interactions with individuals at the border. 2Border Patrol detains apprehended individuals at short-term holding facilities to complete processing and determine a course of action, such as custody transfer, removal, or release. Along the southwest border, Border Patrol divides responsibility for border security operations geographically among nine sectors that include border stations. 3See, for example, Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, Management Alert- DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding and Prolonged Detention of Children and Adults in the Rio Grande Valley (Redacted), OIG-1 9-51 (Washington, D.C.: July 2, 2019); Management Alert - DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding Among Single Adults at El Paso Del Norte Processing Center (Redacted), OIG-1 9-46 (Washington, D.C.: May 30, 2019); and Department of Homeland Security, Acting Secretary McAleenan's Prepared Remarks to the Council of Foreign Relations (September 23, 2019). 4Soft-sided facilities are tent-like structures, which include services and equipment to hold individuals in those facilities, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, and lightning protection. CBP acquired a total of six temporary, soft-sided facilities in Texas and Arizona from April 2019 to July 2019. Adults are defined as any individual age 18 or older on the date of their apprehension by Border Patrol. GAO-20-321 R Page 1

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