The U.S. government has allocated $387 million since 2022 to care for unaccompanied migrant children at a North Carolina school campus that has yet to house a single child.
The former employee didn’t want to be named over concerns that it could hurt her future job prospects if identified.
Money spent on the empty facility includes no-bid contracts awarded to Deployed Services Inc., a frequent government contractor, costing $235.6 million since 2022. Another $103 million for facility management was awarded to the company through competitive bids since June 2023.
The contracts were for “direct care and supervision services” at the facility for unaccompanied minors.
The federal government signed a $50 million lease in 2022 with the American Hebrew Academy, a business which, in turn, was indebted to Beijing-based Puxin Ltd., according to county documents. The lease was for five years and eligible for a five-year renewal option.
Although the 100-acre Greensboro facility is empty of children, hundreds of employees worked 24 hours, seven days a week training and preparing to receive children this spring, the former employee said. The facility includes 31 buildings, an $18 million athletic center, a natatorium, and a 22-acre lake.
The campus, once a Jewish boarding school, was ready to receive children at the Greensboro Influx Care Facility on March 15, according to an Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) fact sheet.
The latest operational status was reached two years after initial contracts and leases were signed and employees were hired.
The Greensboro facility is the latest of three such sites for unaccompanied minors aged 13 through 17 managed by the ORR.
ORR operates within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Two other influx care centers are in Texas: Pecos Children’s Center and Dimmit County Children’s Center.
ORR contends both the Pecos and Dimmit facilities “must be ready to resume operations and accept children within four weeks if needed.”
‘Nothing Happening’
The former worker, who requested anonymity, spoke of feeling “uncomfortable” for getting paid to care for children who weren’t at the facility.The source said the training at the facility appeared to be professional and “legit.”
“But then you go there, and there’s nothing happening,” the source told the Epoch Times.
“I was expecting to see the children. There’s no children.”
The source questioned why millions of dollars have been spent on an empty facility instead of helping local families or veterans who are struggling.
Professional employees, such as teachers and mental health workers, were earning salaries as high as $75,000 per year with health care benefits, the source said.
The facility also held a medical clinic with about a dozen workers, the source said.
The source estimated “about 300” employees were paid to work in shifts so that the facility operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from its opening in March through at least May, when several employees were let go.
The training is conducted in Spanish and most employees couldn’t speak English, the source said.
Online job reviews of Deployed Services in North Carolina mentioned workers from a wide range of cultures, overtime, and free meals. Many of the reviews were in Spanish.
“Some staff work 12 hour days with little to do,” according to one review on an internet job site.
Because there were no children, employees held mock exercises at the center, the source said.
The workers would split into groups, with one group pretending to be children while the remaining workers “practiced” caring for them.
“Some of the staff is modeling the behavior of the children, and the rest of the staff is acting as caregivers and vise [sic] versa,” she wrote, adding that she spoke with contractor Deployed Services.
The mayor’s post explained that the facility was operational, but children would not be sent there unless capacity reached 85 percent in other facilities, which is tracked by ORR.
The facility could house up to 800 children, according to ORR.
Besides the teachers and health care professionals, the facility employed staff for cleaning laundry and food services, the source said.
The food service workers would cook free meals for the staff as part of their preparation for when children arrived, the source said.
Phones were not allowed at work, and workers were told not to discuss their jobs publicly.
Chinese Connections
The former Jewish boarding school operated for nearly 20 years before announcing its closure in 2019, citing ongoing financial troubles.The 990 form stated the school was working on a curriculum for unaccompanied minors that was supposed to launch in June of 2023.
Mr. Yang was also listed on the school’s 990 form as president and a party to the loan agreement with the school.
The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands had issued a liquidation notice and ordered Puxin, on April 29, 2022, to wind up its operations. Mr. Yang’s LinkedIn page shows he has been director Metabroad International Group/Metaway Capital since 2010. Before that, he was project manager at BRSC Beijing.
North Carolina Republicans questioned why taxpayer dollars were benefiting a Chinese-indebted facility.
“We are alarmed based on our current knowledge of this situation and deeply concerned at the prospect of $50 million in taxpayer funds being potentially misused or mishandled by a troubled Chinese company,” the letter stated.
Also, as part of the contract solicitation package, the owner was required to provide evidence of its banking relationship.
‘Wasting Taxpayer Money’
During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last July, Mr. Hudson questioned Mr. Becerra as to why the Greensboro facility was needed if the Texas facilities were in “warm” status, meaning they were prepared to operate, but no children were on site.“To me, this sounds like your department may be wasting taxpayer money,” Mr. Hudson said.
Mr. Becerra didn’t directly respond, but said centers such as the one at Fort Bliss, which is a military base, aren’t ideal for children, leading the department to look for more appropriate sites.
Texas Rep. Brian Harrison, chief of staff at HHS during the Trump administration, said that the vetting process for unaccompanied minors has been relaxed under the Biden administration.
“These dangerous changes have likely resulted in empty shelters,” he said.
But ORR contends that influx care facilities add “urgently needed” beds for children turned over to HHS after being processed by Border Patrol agents.
The latest figures show ORR has 7,565 unaccompanied minors in its custody. Most are placed in state-licensed facilities across the country.
“I’m glad to see HSS putting this vacant site to good use,” said Skip Alston, Democratic chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.
“We stand with our immigrant communities and have a lot of existing resources available to support this endeavor.”
Ms. Vaughan, Greensboro’s mayor, saw it as a chance to bring jobs to the area while embracing migrants.
“This will also have a significant impact on the local economy,” she said. “It is a great opportunity for Greensboro to show our commitment to being a welcoming city.”
The cost of caring for unaccompanied minors is set to increase with a new federal rule scheduled for July 1 that expands services.
It will also limit the use of influx care facilities, which are usually not state-licensed child-care providers because they are considered emergency shelters.
Influx care facilities will only be used when 85 percent or more of ORR’s net standard bed capacity throughout the country is occupied or promised, according to the rule.
No-Bid Contracts
USASpending.gov documents show that ORR justified the no-bid contracts for Deployed Services due to “unusual and compelling urgency” under the Federal Acquisition Regulations.Deployed Services is a veteran-owned business that provides “transparent facility support and logistical services anytime, anywhere,” according to its website.
In May, Deployed Services had 19 job listings still active on its employment portal for its Greensboro location, including openings for guards, food service, life skills, case management, youth care workers, mental health clinicians, logistics and shipping, maintenance and grounds workers, purchasing, IT support, and even hair stylists.
In the past, ORR has justified similar no-bid contracts.
The report stated that ORR did not award the contract “in accordance with federal requirements.”
It said ORR needed to plan more in advance, which would have allowed for competitive bidding.
ORR, however, responded that changing variables, such as increases in referrals and decreases in discharges, made the situation unpredictable.
The report also found that ORR “did not receive the benefit of a full and open competition, such as potentially receiving higher quality services or services at a lower cost.”
It concluded that ORR paid approximately $67 million to operate Homestead, which was fully staffed and equipped for nearly three months after the last child left the facility.
ORR could have protected public funds by establishing control activities to place Homestead into “warm status,” according to the report.
The report also concluded that ORR made approximately $2.6 million in overpayments to the service company.
ORR responded that it disagreed with the inspector general’s report, claiming it followed federal contracting regulations.
When reached by The Epoch Times, Deployed Services referred comment to HHS. HHS initially indicated that they would respond but has failed to answer questions from The Epoch Times concerning the operation of the Greensboro influx care facility.
The Epoch Times filed an open records request in April for contract documents between the government and businesses operating at Greensboro but has not received a response.
The Epoch Times called and left messages with the Greensboro mayor’s office for an update on the facility on June 14, but did not receive a response.
