Who Is Making Money From CBP in Your State?

U.S Customs and Border Protection has been detaining children in squalid conditions at the border. See which companies sell their goods and services to the agency and where they’re headquartered.

The acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) resigned Tuesday after harrowing reports of squalid conditions at the agency’s overcrowded detention facilities near the border with Mexico. Hundreds of children have been denied showers, oral hygiene, even mattresses. Reports described one massively strained facility in Clint, Texas, where girls aged 10 to 15 were caring for a two-year-old boy who needed to be held and didn’t have a diaper. At that facility, there were reportedly 300 children in a single room.

From 2010 to June 24, 2019, CBP paid $6.4 billion to 1,123 outside vendors for an array of goods and services including vehicles, food, furniture, housekeeping, video recording equipment, and leasing, according to Sludge’s review of data from the Federal Procurement Data System. These payments have swiftly increased under the Trump administration. The biggest recipients are defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and PAE Aviation and Technical Services. Other top vendors include information technology company Leidos, G4S Secure Solutions, advertising firm Ogilvy, which is owned by a British parent company, and consulting firms Deloitte and McKinsey & Company.

Several universities including Columbia University, University of Southern California, and Utah State University also received payments from CPB.

Major consumer companies have been profiting from CBP. The agency has bought software from Microsoft and photocopying equipment from Konica Minolta. It has used the services of AT&T and Comcast. Microsoft subsidiary LinkedIn got $20,700 from CBP in 2018 for information technology software.

[link:https://readsludge.com/2019/06/27/who-is-making-money-from-cbp-in-your-state/|