Halliburton is crowing about getting a new Homeland Security contract to build detention camps for illegal immigrants just a few months after its subcontractors were caught using illegal immigrants to help repair naval bases damaged by hurricane Katrina.
Under the new contract, KBR will build temporary detention facilities for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a department of the DHS, "to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S.," the the company said.
The contract requires KBR to provide logistics support to operate one or more of the detention facilities if required. KBR will also perform emergency repair and construction services for ICE in the event of a natural disaster.
When investigative reporter Roberto Lovato looked into the conditions provided to subcontractor employees, he found "squalid trailer parks where up to 19 unpaid, unfed and undocumented KBR site workers inhabited a single trailer for $70 per person, per week." Many suffer from work-related health problems, including diarrhea, sprained ankles, cuts and bruises acquired while working for KBR.
At one point, numerous undocumented workers were thrown off the job and forced to live in the streets of New Orleans after Halliburton refused for two months to pay a subcontractor. Seventy-four workers filed a complaint with the Department of Labor seeking $56,000 in back pay.
Just as the company lured low-wage foreigners to Iraq, workers from poor countries were led to the Gulf Coast by KBR's shady job brokers peddling exaggerated wages and benefits that rarely materialize after immigrants arrive for work. "They were going to pay seven dollars an hour, and the food was going to be free, and rent, but they gave us nothing," a teenage worker from Mexico told Lovato. "They weren't feeding us. We ate cookies for five days. Cookies, nothing else," he said.
The CEO of Texas-based DRS Cosmotech, a KBR subcontractor, hung-up the phone on Lovato after he identified himself as a reporter. The CEO had reportedly promised workers they would be living in hotels or houses, but were provided tents instead.
So it appears that Halliburton is doing its part to ensure that the detention cells it builds will be stuffed.
It is also doing its part to make sure it doesn't get punished for doing so.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Halliburton, DynCorp and other groups have hired trade association lobbyists to oppose a proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking. The lobbyists say they're in favor of the idea in principle, but that implementing it is unrealistic. The lobbyists represent thousands of firms, including DynCorp and KBR, both of which have been linked to trafficking-related concerns.
Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.
"We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record..." says Bruce Stanski, executive vice president, KBR Government and Infrastructure.
The company's track record also includes building "more humane" prison cells that were used to replace the infamous tiger cages used by the French in Vietnam, and building the terrorist prison camp in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
The frightening thing is to think of all this and wonder if there could be any tie to that other story about Halliburton and Houston that broke this week -- the Newsweek story about spying on a small group of Halliburton protesters.
"First they came for the illegal immigrants..."
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