Thread: In deep South Texas, a daily tide of poor migrants

In deep South Texas, a daily tide of poor migrants

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN1 hour ago

They don't look starved to me.


This one looks like welfare waiting to happen.

In this June 20, 2014 photo, Cindy Jimenez, 26, from Olancho, Honduras, calls family from the bus station after she was released from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in McAllen, Texas. Jimenez crossed illegally into the U.S. at zone nine, one of the busiest corridors on the U.S.-Mexico border for illegal crossings. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

These minors don't look unaccompanied to me!



In this June 20, 2014 photo, immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally stand in line for tickets at the bus station after they were released from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in McAllen, Texas. The immigrants entered the country through an area referred to as zone nine. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)


More accompanied by momma and daddy illegals,



In this June 25, 2014 photo, a group of immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are stopped in Granjeno, Texas. Just since October, the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector has made more than 194,000 arrests, nearly triple that of any other sector. Most are from Central America, and many are children. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

http://news.yahoo.com/deep-south-texas-daily-tide-poor-migrants-182220837.html

In deep South Texas, a daily tide of poor migrants

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN 8 hours ago



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MISSION, Texas (AP) — MISSION, Texas (AP) — The influx of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has grown so large that it now requires its own transportation system: government buses that spend each night idling on a Texas roadside, awaiting the latest arrivals.
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The buses, joined by a fleet of Border Patrol vans, illustrate the immense and grindingly routine task facing Border Patrol agents in the 5-mile (8-kilometer) slice of deep South Texas that has become the epicenter of the recent surge in people entering the U.S. illegally.
An Associated Press reporter recently spent several days in this arid terrain, revealing a daily tide of migration that sends impoverished families into a harsh landscape bristling with cameras, lookout towers and heavily armed patrols. Against that backdrop, human smugglers and drug cartels match wits with overwhelmed American authorities.
Deputy Rudy Trevino was patrolling a park along the border when he spied movement in the darkness. Swinging his spotlight toward the motion revealed 14 women and children who had just sneaked across the Rio Grande in a small boat.
The youngest, a 14-month-old boy from Guatemala, lay quietly in a baby carrier hung from his mother's chest. The oldest, a 38-year-old woman from El Salvador, cried with her head in her hands, her 7-year-old daughter leaning against her.
Most of the immigrants hail from Central America, and many come with children. They often turn themselves over to authorities immediately after crossing the river, following the advice of smugglers, friends and relatives, who tell them they will eventually be released and allowed to continue to their destination.
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In this June 20, 2014 photo, Cindy Jimenez, 26, from Olancho, Honduras, holds hands with her son at …

For parents with young children, that has largely been true because the U.S. has only one long-term family detention facility, in Pennsylvania, and it's full. Most parents are handed notices to appear at the immigration office closest to their destination and dropped off at bus stations across the Southwest.
Children arriving without their parents are transferred to custody of the Health and Human Services Department, which tries to reunite them with family members in the U.S.
Both groups have often been allowed to remain in the U.S. while their immigration cases move forward, a process that can sometimes take years.
Migrants' willingness to surrender to authorities has created a system in which smugglers need only to get their human cargo to the American side of the river, rather than guiding them to a populated area.
Just since October, the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector has made more than 194,000 arrests, nearly triple that of any other sector. In the first week of June alone, agents in this area south of Mission arrested more than 2,800 people, most from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, making it the highest-volume arrest zone on the entire U.S. border. More than 60 percent were children.
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In this June 20, 2014 photo, Cindy Jimenez, 26, from Olancho, Honduras, calls family from the bus st …

The zone is patrolled by no fewer than six local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies, including gunboats crewed by Texas state troopers with night-vision goggles and the Border Patrol's white and green trucks. Helicopters swoop above the winding waterway.
But there's little cat-and-mouse pursuit. Every day, hundreds of immigrants walk up to agents, wave to their remote cameras or simply wait to be picked up on the side of a road like Trevino's group in the park.
When Anzalduas Park is busy on weekend afternoons, it takes only seconds for a watercraft to dart across the river and deposit three or four people onto U.S. soil. From there, they blend into the crowd of park goers.
Trevino said the past two months have been "chaos." He's corralled 100 people in a night and had a group of 50 walk up to him at the park bathroom.
Downriver from the park, the landscape reverts to a band of thick mesquite and underbrush along the Rio Grande. It can feel remote, but it's just a thin buffer between the more than 600,000 residents of Reynosa, Mexico, and a master-planned community in Mission with more than 1,900 homes just a couple of miles (kilometers) to the north.
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In this June 20, 2014 photo, immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally stand in line for tickets at …

Across the river is a garbage dump and a Reynosa slum that reaches nearly to the bank. Smoke from burning garbage sometimes drifts across the river so thick it's difficult to see. At the river's edge, discarded pieces of clothing, orange life vests and deflated inner tubes litter the sand.
A few days earlier, as a reporter in a kayak approached a hairpin bend in the river, a cartel sentry on a bluff 20 feet (six meters) above the river slammed a magazine into his assault rifle. He asked where the paddler had come from and who gave him permission to be there. A radio squawked at his waist. The cartel controls what crosses the river.
That's part of why Napoleon Garza doesn't bring his kids here to fish like he did as a child. Garza recently drove through one of the many gaps in the border wall to cut a tree stump from property owned by his uncle.
"When they built the border wall, everything ended because they left a big old gap right here that so happened to be where our land is," said Garza, 38, who sells firewood for a living. "That's where these guys have to run their dope. It's really sad."
As Garza stood above the river, two Texas game warden boats sped by, each with a rifleman scanning the shores. A few minutes later, twigs cracked and a green-clad Border Patrol agent emerged from the brush checking to see what Garza was up to — a constant occurrence near the river.
The city of McAllen, which draws its water from the Rio Grande, has pumps on a narrow strip of land between the border fence and the river. Workers there started carrying handguns after they came under fire.
The water district installed street lights, erected camera-topped towers and built a road and concrete pad so the Border Patrol could erect a mobile surveillance tower.
The district's president and general manager, Othal Brand, farmed the area for 25 years with his father. There was illegal activity then, too, and it seems likely to continue unless the Border Patrol stations agents every few hundred feet along the river, he said.
"It's like a bad neighborhood," Brand said. "You get acclimated. You don't like it, but you understand it."

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http://news.yahoo.com/deep-south-texas-daily-tide-poor-migrants-182220837.html

Need a Job? how about- Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children Solicitation Number: BERKS-RFI Agency: Department of Homeland Security Office

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Emmanuel
Comments Off

Original Synopsis Jan 29, 2014 3:19 pm

Solicitation Number: BERKS-RFI Notice Type: Sources Sought Synopsis: [COLOR=#999999 !important]Added: Jan 29, 2014 3:19 pm[/COLOR] See Attachment. Please consult the list of document viewers if you cannot open a file. RFI Type: Other (Draft RFPs/RFIs, Responses to Questions, etc..) Posted Date: January 29, 2014 Juvenile_Transport_RFI_(TONY_Edits_1_29_14).docx (36.76 Kb) Description: Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children RFI Contracting Office Address: 801 I Street, NW, Suite 910, Washington, District of Columbia 20536 United States Place of Performance: Varies. See Attachment. United States Primary Point of Contact.: Tony Ross, Contracting Officer tony.ross@ice.dhs.gov Phone: 2027322587 Secondary Point of Contact: Rachel Ali, Contract Specialist Rachel.Ali@ice.dhs.gov Phone: 2027322622

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportun...tabmode=list&=
Procurement Type: Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought
Title: Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children
Classification Code: V- Transportation/Travel/Relocation
NAICS code: 561612
Primary POC: Rachel Ali, Contract Specialist/ Rachel.Ali@ice.dhs.gov
Secondary POC: Tony Ross, Contracting Officer/ Tony.Ross@ice.dhs.gov
A. Introduction
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has 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. ICE is seeking the services of a responsible vendor that shares the philosophy of treating all UAC with dignity and respect, while adhering to standard operating procedures and policies that allow for an effective, efficient, and incident free transport. The Contractor shall provide unarmed escort staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment, and supplies necessary to provide on-demand escort services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age, seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year. Transport will be required for either category of UAC or individual juveniles, to include both male and female juveniles. There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total: 25% local ground transport, 25% via ICE charter and 50% via commercial air. Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC from DHS to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff, travel coordination, limited stationary guard services to accommodate for trip disruptions due to inclement weather, faulty equipment, or other exigent circumstances. In emergency situations, the Contractor shall be called on to provide temporary shelter locations (such as trailers) with shower facilities for juveniles who are pending placement with HHS when bed space is unavailable nationwide for extended periods of time. The Contractor shall provide temporary guard services and other support as necessary during these emergencies.

In addition, the Contractor shall have personnel who are able to communicate with juveniles in their own designated language(s). While this may not require each employee to be fluent in all of the encountered languages, personnel should have access to and knowledge of translation services.

B. ICE Standards/Special Requirements

The contractor is required to perform in accordance with the ICE Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS 2011), all ICE policies related to the transportation of juveniles (see the ICE Family Residential Standards at http://www.ice.gov/detention-standar...y-residential/) as well as the Flores Settlement Agreement, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In cases where other standards conflict with DHS/ICE Policy or Standards, DHS/ICE Policy and Standards will prevail. ICE Inspectors will conduct periodic inspections to assure compliance of the aforementioned standards.

Personnel shall have the knowledge and experience to transport individual children with special needs. Often times, children with special needs may require a transportation method that is time saving and direct, i.e. by commercial airline. Contractor shall also provide for accompanying medical care. Additionally, due to exigent circumstances, the Contractor shall be required to transport juveniles via ground to HUB airports or other staging areas that are not located within the area of initial apprehension.

The Contractor shall follow a fully developed training curriculum and transporting staff shall have the highest level of competency possible. Areas of training shall include, but are not limited to the following: Airport rules and regulations for travelers, crisis intervention, child development, working with and transporting youth with special needs, transporting youth with behavioral problems, CPR & First Aid training, non-secured UAC policy and procedures and the implementation of contingency plans in the event of a crisis during transport, which include de-escalation techniques.

• Background Investigations and Suitability Screenings will be conducted on all Contract Employees by the Office of Professional Responsibility and Personnel Security Unit (OPR-OSU).
• The Contractor shall agree that each employee working on this contract will successfully pass the DHS Employment Eligibility (E-Verify) program operated by USICS to establish work authorization and U.S. Citizenship.
• Employees must reside in the United States.

C. Contract Type


The Government anticipates awarding a five (5) year Fixed Price Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle consisting of a one year base period, and four (4) option years. The Service Contract
Act is applicable to this acquisition. All required clauses, provisions will be included in the solicitation and resulting contractual instrument.

The anticipated release date of the solicitation is March 3, 2014. The solicitation closing date will be thirty (30) days after release of the Request for Proposal (RFP).

Projected Set-Aside: All business sizes are welcome to participate; however, ICE is trying to determine small business interest, particularly HubZone companies. All information received in response in to this notice will be used to determine the appropriateness of any small business set-aside for this requirement.


D. Place of Performance:

Service Area: Throughout the Continental United States (US)

The area(s) or region(s) serviced may occur either with a phased approach over a period of several months to a full year. Alternatively, the Contractor shall perform the entire transportation function upon full funding. For example, the following two circumstances may occur: (1) The contractor could initially provide transportation services only in the Southwest Region of the U.S. for those juveniles who are apprehended in the state of Texas; or, (2) The Contractor may be required to provide transportation services for all juveniles who are in DHS custody throughout the continental U.S.


E. RFI Purpose/Requirements
The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information and capabilities for planning purposes and to determine appropriate strategies to meet the Agency’s requirements. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment for an RFP in the future. Responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this announcement and information submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned.
Interested parties are instructed to submit the following information: (Note: Please do not exceed 5 pages per RFI submission)

• POC information (name, title, phone number, address, email address, etc.)
• Socio-economic status
• Brief Company Capability statement (to include addressing all special needs as stated above)

F. Submissions and Point of Contact Information

Submit written or electronic submissions via email to Rachel.Ali@ice.dhs.gov by 1:00pm EST on Monday, February 19, 2014.

End of RFI


http://threepercenternation.com/2014...curity-office/