The large portable tents made by Eugene-based company Western Shelter Systems have been used for people displaced by hurricanes and earthquakes, fighting wildfires and potentially infected with Ebola.
But today, Western Shelter tents are being put to a more controversial use in Tornillo, Texas: housing hundreds of teenagers and children who tried to illegally cross the Mexican border.
The camp, which some have dubbed a “tent city,” was erected quickly this spring near the Rio Grande to help enforce President Donald Trump’s new “zero tolerance” immigration policy. That policy resulted in more immigrants and asylum-seekers being detained and more families being separated at the border, which prompted widespread national outrage last month.
And, although Trump signed an executive order ending family separation on June 20, his “zero tolerance” policy is still in place. The ultimate outcome of that order is expected to be more undocumented immigrant families detained together in new ad hoc and temporary detention facilities — a potential boon to federal contractors such as Western Shelter Systems that equip them.
The Tornillo camp was near its 360-person capacity in late June, according to local news reports. Most of the minors in the camp are from Guatemala and Honduras, and the inhabitants last week included about two dozen children who were separated from their families at the border, according to The Texas Tribune.
Officials at Western Shelter Systems didn’t respond to requests for comment.
But an official photo of the facility released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services clearly shows the company’s name on one of the tents. Aerial photos appear to show at least 25 of Western Shelter’s “Gatekeeper” model tents at the camp.
There, the minors sleep on bunk beds, 20 people in each of the 570-square-foot tents.
The high-end tents — which include air conditioning, insulation and interior lighting — cost between $15,000 and $20,000 each, depending on accessories purchased, according to a 2014 company price list.
It’s unclear whether the tents are owned by HHS or by the nonprofit contractor that is running the detention facility, BCFS. It’s also unclear if any other products made by Western Shelter Systems are being used at the camp or if a company field team helped assemble the tents on the site, a service the company offers, according to a former customer.
Mark Weber, an HHS spokesman, refused to answer a series of questions about the camp and the department’s potential contracts with Western Shelter Systems. BCFS’s contract to run the facility states that they must refer all media inquiries to HHS.
Founded in 1988, Western Shelter Systems, headquartered in west Eugene, has three lines of manufacturing today: so-called “hard-sided” structures, such as field hospitals and modular homes; “soft-sided” tents, used for disaster relief and in Tornillo; and its CrewBoss brand of clothing for firefighters and emergency responders.
As of 2016, the company had 133 employees, including sales representatives based in other states.
Western Shelter is owned by a partnership led by Gorge Holdings, a Portland-based private equity firm, which purchased it from its founder in 2013. The private company doesn’t disclose its financials, but a firm representative told The Register-Guard in 2016 that the federal government was Western Shelter’s biggest customer.
According to the website GovTribe, which tracks federal contracts, Western Shelter has received $14 million in federal contracts since Oct. 1, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year. That’s a big jump from the previous year, when it received $8.1 million, according to the site.
Historically, Western Shelter’s biggest federal customers have been the U.S. Army, according to GovTribe, followed by the Defense Logistics Agency, which partners with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to disasters in the United States.
The future of the temporary camp in Tornillo is in doubt, since BCFS’s contract to run the facility expires Friday. No decision has been made about extending it, according to HHS.
However, the U.S. military has been separately tasked with preparing temporary detention centers at military bases and airfields around the country that could house at least 20,000 illegal immigrants, according to national media reports.
The cost of such facilities can be substantial: HHS told NBC News last month that its temporary facilities cost $775 per person per night, compared with $256 per person per night in its permanent facilities.
Department officials told NBC that the high cost is driven by the need to quickly to bring in security, air conditioning, medical workers and other government contractors to build and run the facilities.
