With thousands of unaccompanied foreign national children reaching the United States’ southwest border, their arrival can represent a hope of a better life. It also represents a cash cow for several for-profit businesses under contract with the federal government to care for those children in facilities across the country.
One such business is Arizona-based VisionQuest National LTD, which recently remodeled a hotel along Interstate 10 in Benson to house several unaccompanied children and teenagers who enter the United States without a parent or guardian. The company frequently posts help-wanted ads throughout Cochise County and Tucson seeking bilingual applicants for a variety of positions.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) operate the government’s Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. The program funds more than 100 temporary shelters and long-term residential facilities for unaccompanied children, who numbered more than 3,100 when President Joe Biden took office in January.
The Unaccompanied Alien Children Program provides several levels of care and services for unaccompanied minors while a child’s claim for relief under U.S. immigration law is resolved. Resolution of a claim may result in a child’s release to a parent or other adult, voluntary departure or court-ordered removal from the country, or the granting of official immigration status which allows for lawful presence in the country.
VisionQuest provides a number of youth services in Arizona, as well as Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Many of the services are related to child welfare and family court matters, but in recent years the company has received huge payouts from ORR to care for unaccompanied minors.
To date in fiscal year 2021, VisionQuest and its various Arizona locations have been awarded more than $10 million to shelter and care for unaccompanied minors at the border. That expense is expected to substantially increase along with the surge of asylum-seeking minors.
Other companies operating in Arizona which received funding in January include A New Leaf, Inc., Child Crisis Arizona, and Neighborhood Ministries, Inc. But ensuring sufficient staffing at such facilities is not easy.
VisionQuest often advertises for the vital position of bilingual clinician, which according to the company’s website involves conducting intake admissions and diagnostic assessments of the children, screening for human trafficking concerns, providing crisis intervention services, and ensuring ongoing individual and group counseling services.
Clinicians also monitor and document a youth’s mental well-being and adjustment to the program, and are involved in the development and implementation of youth therapeutic plans, facilitating transfers, and reunification planning. Other positions open at the Benson facility are lead case managers, shift supervisors, and teachers; all require the applicant to be bilingual in English and Spanish.
Inquiries to the company were not answered, but its website notes a majority of the children placed in its care are released to a family member or approved sponsor within 30 days. The website also describes what is supposed to happen when a child enters one of the company’s programs.
“Many of them have had very difficult journeys to get to where they are and we want them to feel as if they are finally safe,” the website states. “While they are with us, each child is treated with the utmost respect. We provide them with fresh clothes, hot meals, and a bed of their own to sleep in. As we continue to care for them, our staff dedicate themselves to contacting each child’s family members in their home country and work to identify any and all family members who reside in the U.S.”
The children are also purportedly provided nutritious, “culturally-appropriate meals and snacks,” along with hygiene items, personalized space including a bed and dresser, individualized education, and recreational activities. Mental health services -including trauma-informed counseling are also provided, as well as vaccines, physicals, and dental examinations.
But the large amount of money flowing through HHS and ORR has garnered the attention of Congress. It has also raised questions from local and state child welfare officials about whether enough is being done to ensure the children are properly cared for and are not being released into abusive, even predatory, situations.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles which will look at the myriad government agencies legally tasked with ensuring unaccompanied children are properly cared for, along with the non-government organizations (NGOs) and for-profit companies receiving millions of taxpayer monies to house, feed, counsel, medically treat, and educate the children.