The ICE Foundation: Incentivizing Ethnic Cleansing in the United States

Moss Robeson
Sep 7, 2018 · 13 min read
2015 ICE Foundation annual gala at the Mayflower Hotel

The day the New York Times reported “one of the first clear indications that the president’s hard-line [immigration] policies are being carried out on a grand scale,” six blocks from the White House, the Mayflower Hotel hosted an “ICE Recognition Gala,” as it has ever year since 2011 in virtual secrecy. That is to say, the press have never reported the event, regularly attended by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and corporate partners of both the ICE Foundation and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — which officially have no connection. That being said, last year’s guests of the foundation’s annual gala heard speeches from Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, soon to be named White House Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly, and the acting director of ICE, Thomas Homas. A former backup singer for Bruce Springsteen turned featured soloist at ceremonial gigs, Mary Millben, provided entertainment. Having recently performed at Trump’s “Inauguration Victory Celebration,” she did a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

It was a jubilant event for the profiteers of mass incarceration and deportation, organized by the ICE Foundation. The CEO of CoreCivic, formerly known as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which co-sponsored the gala, may not have been in attendance, but in those days probably spoke for the private prison industry when he “raved about [his] company’s prospects” under the Trump administration, calling it “the most robust kind of sales environment we’ve seen in probably 10 years.” A recent expose of the ICE Foundation by Sludge revealed that half of the charitable foundation’s directors and officers have ties to companies that have done business with the federal agency (such as the GEO Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Thomson Reuters Special Services), raising “questions about possible inside access to ICE officials, and to those assigning government contracts, potentially giving those companies a significant advantage over other bidders.” Its author quoted an activist’s take on the foundation: “It’s just another example showing that ICE isn’t just about the morally bankrupt enterprise of tearing families apart — it’s also about stuffing the pockets of billionaires and their corporations.”

Screenshot of an interactive graphic published by Sludge

So what is the ICE Foundation? Ostensibly, it is totally independent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and aims to “bring together government and industry leaders,” according to its website, to raise money for the families of ICE agents killed in the line of duty as well as victims of “human trafficking” and “child exploitation” rescued by the agency. One need only take more than a cursory look at the private organization’s shoddy website to find reasonable cause for suspicion. As advertised to corporate sponsors, an affiliation with the ICE Foundation “enhances your brand’s reputation and gains you admittance to exclusive circles.” A little deeper digging reveals that the majority of the foundation’s major sponsors have done business with ICE, and are enticed with promises of “VIP only access to speakers,” that is, ICE and DHS leadership. Most of those publicly recorded as having attended the foundation’s events are government officials or corporate executives, many of the latter having previously belonged to the former category and/or now earn salaries from companies that have scored ICE contracts. At best, the nonprofit’s charity work is a crude cover to grease the revolving door between ICE and the private sector, yet the foundation has almost entirely avoided media attention.

To hear it from the ICE Foundation’s creepy, dowdy chairman, John Clark, a former ICE deputy assistant secretary who now doubles as Pfizer’s vice president and chief security officer, “We’re there to support the mission. We’re there to help ICE achieve its mission, be successful, and make sure the public is aware — make sure corporate America is aware — that, enhance ICE’s capabilities so they can fulfill it better. That’s sort of our responsibilities … We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time …”

John Clark (left) shakes hands with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson at the 2014 ICE Foundation gala

The ICE Foundation website defines its “mission” as seeking to “aid ICE in developing and maintaining relationships with all levels of law enforcement in the United States, as well as international law enforcement and public and private corporations. These networks are central to … identifying and removing national security threats …” Articles posted on icefoundation.org give the impression of being placeholders rather than a serious attempt at public relations; in any case, they are transparent propaganda for an immensely dehumanizing system, and are outrageous to read at a time when the public is still clamoring for the reunification of immigrant families separated at the border.

In a nation that feels more divided than ever, at our core, we all want a safe country that nourishes our families and gives us the opportunities for success. This desire is inherent in all of us, but behind the peaceful lives we crave are the brave men and women who work to keep our borders secure so that we can embrace all that America has to offer … Through their efforts, they face danger, try to help the marginalized, and generally do jobs that are personally rewarding but often thankless. That is why the ICE Foundation was created; we strive to provide much-needed support to both ICE agents, as well as those they help through the course of their duties … As such, we have plenty of ways donors can get involved so that we all foster a sense of citizenship and community investment. If you would like to know more about how you can get involved or donate, contact us today at 202–888–1761! Together, we will help ICE continue its important work so that we all can continue to enjoy the freedoms that make America great.

“Together, we will … make America great.” Contrary to the foundation’s rhetoric about targeting “national security threats,” it’s no secret that ICE arrests have become increasingly indiscriminate under the Trump administration, and for the foundation’s sponsors, business is booming. According to the Miami New Times, “no single company is making more money off the federal deportation machine” than the GEO Group, the biggest private prison company in the world and ICE’s go-to contractor, with nearly a fifth of its revenue coming from the agency. ICE has to date given GEO well over a billion dollars, not to speak of almost half a billion dollars in active contracts. The GEO Group might be the ICE Foundation’s biggest sponsor with but a drop in the bucket; for example, by underwriting its 2018 annual golf fundraiser (attended by several DHS attorneys and corporate partners of ICE) with a check for $35,000.

GEO has been the subject of a number of lawsuits in the last decade, many of them by plaintiffs alleging wrongful death, sexual harassment or abuse, and other human rights violations (such as macing prisoners staging a hunger strike). In 2008–2009, immigrant prisoners, most of them serving one to five year sentences for nonviolent charges awaiting deportation, rebelled against the abysmal conditions of their confinement, rioting twice in six weeks at Texas’ Reeves County Detention Complex, a GEO facility, also the earth’s largest private prison and immigrant detention center.

In 2014, the year Clark invited fellow travellers to “celebrate with us as we launch our endowment and … scholarship campaigns,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and ICE deputy director Daniel Ragsdale gave speeches at the ICE Founation’s fourth annual gala. Almost exactly three years later, Ragsdale wrote his colleagues farewell for a job with the GEO Group: “While you may be losing me as a colleague, please know that I will continue to be a strong advocate for you and your mission.” In the months leading up to his move to the private sector, a class action lawsuit alleged the GEO Group to have violated “anti-slavery laws by forcing around 60,000 current and former immigrants to work for less than a dollar a day” in Colorado; ICE awarded GEO a $110 million contract for a new 1000-bed immigrant detention facility in Texas; and the company’s vice president “told shareholders they would ‘start to see the benefits’ of increased apprehensions and detentions of undocumented immigrants.” In 2017, according to Bloomberg, the private prison company “spent a record $1.7 million lobbying … promoting public-private partnerships.”

Obama’s DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson at the 2014 ICE Foundation gala

And then of course there’s Angela Zutavern, secretary of the ICE Foundation, who left Booz Allen Hamilton in 2018 as its vice president of five years, in which time Edward Snowden’s former employer secured almost $100 million in ICE contracts.

Perhaps the best example of the foundation’s collusion with the US deportation machine lies in Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), the CEO of which, Stephen Rubley, sits on the ICE Foundation’s Board of Directors. (That’s not to mention James Dinkins, ICE’s first director of Homeland Security Investigations, an individual sponsor of the ICE Foundation, and TRSS’ vice president and general manager.) The Thomson Reuters SS began landing contracts with ICE, which altogether surpassed $8 million, after Rubley joined the multinational mass media and information subsidiary. If not already, the foundation soon enough had TRSS, Rubley, and Dinkins’ support. Rubley has publicly defended TRSS’ business with ICE, which includes selling it “a continuous monitoring and alert service that provides real-time jail booking data to support the identification and location of aliens,” and “access to a vast license-plate scanning database,” among other things; in all, providing crucial services to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it struggles to keep up with the Trump administration.

In fact, TRSS is one of ICE’s key private partners to develop a “little-publicized data collection program” the agency began in 2016, according to the Center of Investigative Reporting (CIR). “Deportation going high tech is a process that started under Obama,” an expert told CIR’s Reveal a year ago. “But what we’ve seen under President Trump is basically taking off the gloves.” The TRSS has been a strong backer of the ICE Foundation, donating at least $10,000 for a table at the 2017 gala, and throwing its weight behind the foundation’s suspicious “Granting Courage” scholarship, which began in 2014, intended for human trafficking victims, apparently to study homeland security.

In a pamphlet distributed at the 2017 ICE Foundation Granting Courage Casino Night (sponsored by CoreCivic, Pfizer, Underwriters Laboratories, Thomson Reuters, and the Alibaba Group), the foundation boasted that the Granting Courage program “has gained national notoriety for its innovative approach” — flashing logos of CNN, the Atlantic, and Thomson Reuters — which is simply untrue. There’s no record of the Atlantic or Reuters, or any notable publication for that matter, ever having written about the ICE Foundation’s scholarship, but CNN once published a short article by Evelyn Chumbow, its “inaugural recipient” and spokesperson. There is no sign of other Granting Courage students, but they might exist. ICEFoundation.org has a page titled “Granting Courage Job Creation Initiative Thomson Reuters Partnership,” however one needs special permission to view its contents, what appears to be a slideshow. The CNN article said the scholarship got started with contributions from ICE’s Victims Assistance Program, among others, such as the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.

Evelyn Chumbow at the 2015 ICE Foundation gala

As reported by Sludge, there are a few other minor examples of collusion between ICE and the self-described “official non-profit organization that honors the men and women” of the agency. That being said, someone felt it necessary for the 2017 ICE Recognition Gala’s programs to include the caveat: “Participation by the ICE Color Guard does not reflect the agency’s official endorsement of this event.” It’s doubtful that ICE and DHS leaders have made such qualifications on behalf of the Obama and Trump administrations during their speeches to the foundation over the years.

GEO Group and CoreCivic were the 2017 gala’s “Platinum Sponsors,” indicating a donation of $25,000 or more, which entitled their companies to a shout-out during the event, a half page ad in its program, “prominent display” of their logos in the Mayflower Hotel, and a table for eight. It appears that CapGemini Government Solutions gave at least $35,000 for the title of “Reception Sponsor,” meaning it got special attention during the cocktail hour. The “French multinational professional services and business consulting corporation” has been awarded some $400 million in ICE contracts over the last decade.

Thomson Reuters Special Services need no introduction. Other “Table Sponsors” ($10,000 for eight seats) included PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, two of the “Big Four” accounting firms, both of them British, which have received more than $300 million from the agency since 2008; Peter Thiel’s Palantir corporation, which scored $100 million in ICE contracts in that span, and got caught up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal; Underwriters Laboratories, a “global independent safety science company” that has earned less than $100,000 from the agency over the years, but might hope to land another contract with help from the foundation; Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company; and of course, Booz Allen Hamilton.

There were also “Program Sponsors” ($5,000 for an ad): G4S, a huge London-based “security services” and mercenary company that’s been awarded about $200 million in ICE contracts over the last ten years; Akima, a consulting firm that’s raked in $250 million from ICE since 2014; CSRA Inc, a “government IT services conglomerate” bought by General Dynamics this year that’s scored over $100 million in ICE contracts; and, oddly enough, Louis Vuitton.

As for the “Friends of the Foundation,” (notably the lowest tier, for $1,000) there was LexisNexis and Motorola, which haven’t done business with ICE; a company called TRI-COR then enjoying a $5.5 million ICE contract that expires this month; and Emerald Companies, a private prison operator responsible for the first person to die in ICE’s custody in the 2017 fiscal year.

2015 ICE Foundation gala

Who spoke at the 2018 gala and sponsored the event is a secret, but we can likely guess. If tradition continued, that included Trump’s DHS Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, and acting ICE director Thomas Homan (or one of his deputies). That day the New York Times published an article about a viral video recording the racist tirade of an unidentified “middle-aged, athletic-looking white man” in a Manhattan “cavernous fast-casual restaurant.”

“Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English,” he says. “It’s America.” He adds: “I will be following up, and my guess is they’re not documented. So my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country.”

The video inspired a number of New York officials to denounce the man, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who chimed in on Twitter. “Even the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency … distanced itself from the man’s threat to call the office,” told the Times, however, “a spokeswoman acknowledged that all undocumented immigrants are subject to deportation.” Furthermore, as noted by the paper, Thomas Homan issued a similar threat to undocumented immigrants last year: “You should look over your shoulder.”

Once again, the media didn’t catch a whiff of the “ICE Recognition Gala.” However, despite the secrecy of the event, the ICE Foundation has used a fundraising website for its 2018 events that post statistics online and publicly identify some of its donors, including a number of current DHS officials. Waldemar Rodriguez and his deputy Scot Rittenberg, who lead the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) — “responsible for overseeing ICE’s organization integrity” — each donated $125. A senior manager of Deloitte, which is currently wrapped up in $60 million in contracts with ICE, and an account manager for Giant Oak, a tech company with $6 million in active ICE contracts that promises to “look behind the data to see individuals and communities,” each gave $350, the cost of a ticket.

What do you know, the so-called Homeland Security and Defense Business Council donated $1000. So did Dynamis Inc.’s “Director of DHS and Civil Agencies,” whose company signed a five year, $20 million contract with ICE in 2013… Would you look at that! A former ICE deputy Special Agent in Charge in San Diego turned lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton is now CEO of his own consulting firm; he also donated $1000. And over there, isn’t that the former senior legislative counsel to Rep. Lofgren, the Democrat’s ranking member on the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security? Hey, what’s going on here? At the end of the day, identified donors accounted for just $10,000 of the $162,500 raised. That leaves more than $150,000 to 20 anonymous donors, probably the usual suspects; we can guess that GEO Group or CoreCivic was the reported $25,000 platinum sponsor.

“Many of the nonprofits, corporations and religious groups watching over migrant children detained at the southwest border have been in this business for years — and they have a history of political connections, donating millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans alike,” reported the New York Times this past Fourth of July. “Now, as new federal policies greatly expand the number of migrants held in detention, it is … becoming clear that some of the players in this billion-dollar industry have particularly strong ties to the Trump administration …” But as Benjamin Franklin once said, “Half the truth is often a great lie.” The Times went on, “There is no indication that political favors or influence motivated any of the contacts, and the service providers have no apparent ties to the agency awarding most of the contracts,” referring to the Health Department. However, there is circumstantial evidence the ICE Foundation influences the awarding of ICE contracts and is operationally tied to the agency. At the very least, as the Trump administration ramps up its “mild form of ethnic cleansing,” this shady charitable organization seems as eager as ever to give a hearty push to the revolving door between the federal deportation machine and the private sector.

Trump’s DHS Secretary John Kelly at the 2017 ICE Foundation gala

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