The Procurement Officer's Former Employer
The federal official directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention procurement is a former GEO Group executive who, by ethics waiver, was permitted to award contracts to his prior employer — a company poised to receive tens of billions of dollars over four years through detention contracts often awarded without competitive bids.
#predatory capital #deportation machinery
The federal official directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention procurement is David Venturella, a former executive of GEO Group, where he ran the company’s immigration detention portfolio. The Department of Homeland Security granted him a written ethics waiver permitting him to award contracts to his prior employer in his new role.
The waiver has functioned. GEO’s principal access to ICE money runs through a complex Navy procurement system used to disburse most of the $45 billion the Navy distributed last year, allowing ICE to direct contracts to GEO without competitive bids. GEO’s competitors — other private detention operators eyeing the same expanding market — have not received comparable channels of access.
By industry estimate, GEO Group is positioned to receive tens of billions of federal dollars over the next four years for detaining immigrants. The procurement officer who directs those contracts came directly from the company that receives them.