After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the death of 32-year-old Jhon Benavides Quintana in one of its New Mexico detention facilities, the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union called for accountability beyond the agency. It specifically named Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, which runs Otero County Processing Facility where the Ecuadoran man was held.
In a statement following ICE’s report of the death, Rebecca Sheff, a senior attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, wrote, “The heartbreaking death of Jhon Javier Benavides Quintana comes after years of evidence that Otero County, MTC and ICE are unwilling and unable to detain asylum seekers and long-time immigrant residents in a safe and humane way.”
According to a legally required account of the death published by ICE, the man complained of numbness and tingling in his left leg, accompanied by a painful mass in his left groin, during a visit with MTC medical staff three weeks prior. Staff prescribed a drug to treat nerve pain and scheduled an ultrasound for June 17. Benavides Quintana died June 15.
The facility is one of five across California, New Mexico and Texas that MTC, whose main offices are in Centerville, is contracted to manage. Thousands of migrants like Benavides Quintana live in those facilities, which have seen numbers surge in recent months. But it isn’t the only Utah company whose revenue depends, in part, on immigration enforcement.
Four Utah companies, overall, have active contracts with ICE, according to the government database USAspending. And at least one has paid to lobby Congress for more money amid increasingly aggressive migrant crackdowns.
Action Target
Founded in Provo four decades ago, Action Target has deep connections to one of Utah’s most prominent Republicans — Sen. John Curtis was the company’s chief operating officer and a partial owner from 1999 to 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Action Target designs and manufactures shooting ranges and equipment, often for law enforcement agencies like ICE. Its first client was the Provo Police Department in 1986 — decades before Curtis left the company and was elected Provo’s mayor.
The Salt Lake Tribune reached out to Action Target with questions about whether the company actively pursued ICE’s business and if it ever rejects purchasing orders, as well as the company’s current relationship with the senator.
“We respectfully decline to provide information regarding our current or prospective clients and colleagues, as this information is confidential,” a spokesperson responded.
Although ICE has procured the company’s services multiple times, as early as the agency’s 2003 creation, the pair has just one active contract — worth $26,800 — for annual equipment maintenance at a shooting range in Miami, per USAspending.
Global Miracle Solutions
Global Miracle Solutions, headquartered in downtown Salt Lake City, is a venture formed by Global Consulting International and Miracle Solutions. The majority of the revenue for all of those companies comes from government contracts.
As part of an ongoing $4.5 million contract, Global Miracle Solutions assists ICE’s Office of Regulatory Affairs and Policy in navigating the government-wide policies that impact the agency and strategizing as new rules are developed.
The company did not respond to a message inquiring about the nature of the consulting services it provides ICE and what types of regulatory questions it helps the agency navigate.
HealthEquity
Draper-based HealthEquity administers flexible spending accounts for employees across numerous federal agencies.
ICE, specifically, is expected to pay approximately $86,000 in administrative fees to the company this year.
The company’s communications director did not answer an email about the proportion of its federal business ICE comprises.
Management and Training Corporation
According to ICE’s most recent counts from earlier this month, just over 4,000 immigrants are detained in MTC facilities.
The five sites run by MTC are Imperial Regional Detention Facility in California, Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, as well as Bluebonnet Detention Facility, El Valle Detention Facility and IAH Polk Adult Detention Facility in Texas.
Among detainees overseen by MTC, according to ICE, approximately 88% are classified as “No ICE Threat Level,” meaning they have never been convicted of a crime.
MTC’s services go beyond immigration detention — the for-profit company also operates correction centers and Job Corps programs. Its business also extends outside the United States to corrections and immigrant detention facilities in the U.K. and Australia.
The total value of MTC’s contracts to run U.S. immigration detention is unclear.
USAspending reports the current contract for Imperial Regional Detention Facility, which stretches from last December to December of this year, amounts to $25 million.
Other contract numbers do not appear in that database because the company is subcontracted by local government entities that have established intergovernmental support agreements with ICE. In the PDF versions of those agreements posted to an ICE public records library, compensation rates are redacted.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Activists stage a protest against a private prison company with contracts to hold undocumented immigrants on Thursday, July 12, 2018, at the headquarters of Management and Training Corporation in Centerville.
Last month, ICE also signed off on an “indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity” contract with MTC for “detention and related services for aliens in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in response to the border emergency” scheduled to last through May 2027. Such an agreement gives the agency the ability to work with the company on an indefinite quantity of services.
The Utah company has employed lobbyists to advocate for its interests in Washington for years. But in the first quarter of this year, after Trump took office for a second time, MTC paid one of the firms it works with $22,500 to push for more “funding for ICE detention beds” from Congress, according to a disclosure submitted to both the Senate and the House.
“MTC plays no role in funding, advocating for, or determining immigration policy,” Emily Lawhead, the company’s communications director, said in an email.
As ICE looks to expand detention facilities’ capacity, Lawhead said the agency “has contacted MTC about its ability to assist with this goal, but no contracts have been entered into for expansion.”
Civil rights groups, like the ACLU, have long criticized how MTC treats migrants at all of the facilities it operates. There have been lawsuits over what immigrant advocates have characterized as lengthy and unwarranted solitary confinement stays, and treatment of migrants in MTC’s custody has sparked riots and temporary contract terminations, PBS Frontline reported.
Despite concerns raised over for-profit companies, and MTC, specifically, operating detention centers, Lawhead said, “The safety, dignity, and well-being of all residents assigned to our detention facilities continues to be our highest priority. ... Any concerns raised by residents are promptly addressed to ensure their comfort and security during their stay.”