{"id":596595,"date":"2018-06-27T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=596595"},"modified":"2018-06-27T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T01:13:17","slug":"abq-aviation-company-mum-on-federal-contracts-related-to-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/06\/abq-aviation-company-mum-on-federal-contracts-related-to-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"ABQ aviation company mum on federal contracts related to immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_593761\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-593761\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Undocumented immigrant children\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Undocumented immigrant children at a U.S. Border Patrol processing center in McAllen, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A New Mexico aviation company owned by a prominent Republican businessman has active contracts with the federal agency charged with housing migrant children once they cross the border.<\/p>\n<p>Albuquerque-based CSI Aviation, Inc., owned by Allen Weh, a former GOP candidate for New Mexico governor and U.S. Senate, has won multiple contracts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for transportation and relocation services that occurred in 2017 and 2018, a review of federal government databases shows.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/06\/26\/albuquerque-aviation-company-mum-on-federal-contracts-related-to-immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In a June 23\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2018\/06\/23\/zero-tolerance-prosecution-and-family-reunification.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news release<\/a>, HHS said when families were apprehended at the border they were processed first by the U.S. Border Patrol, which then separated the children, placing them in the custody of the department\u2019s\u00a0Office of Refugee Resettlement. The parents are sent to ICE for processing.<\/p>\n<p>There were 2,053 \u201cseparated minors\u201d in HHS facilities on June 20, which is 17 percent of minors under the care of HHS, the agency said. The remaining 83 percent are minors who arrived to the U.S. on their own, without a parent or guardian.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear whether HHS contracted CSI to fly immigrant children to and from the federal agency\u2019s facilities. A publicly available database of HHS contracts with CSI simply codes the purpose as transportation, travel or relocation.<\/p>\n<p>The company on Monday refused to answer NMID questions about the nature of its HHS work, which could be contracting with the company for a range of services, directing it to HHS for a response. As of \u00a02 p.m. Wednesday, the federal agency had not responded to NMID\u2019s questions sent Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years CSI has done work for the U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agency, or ICE, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the office of Detention Compliance and Removal.<\/p>\n<p>CSI\u2019s work for ICE came up during discussions earlier this year of the city of Albuquerque\u2019s role in helping CSI renovate and occupy the former Eclipse Aerospace hangar at the city\u2019s airport, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The city was asked to administer $250,000 in Local Economic Development Act money to help the company with the renovation.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>City Councilor Pat Davis of District 6<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/1166462\/hangar-fundings-legality-questioned.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0questioned<\/a>\u00a0if Albuquerque\u2019s involvement would violate the city\u2019s immigrant friendly resolution that bans the use of city resources in immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair at a city council meeting earlier this month said CSI doesn\u2019t currently have a \u201cfederal immigration enforcement contract\u201d and\u00a0that the city had a written commitment from CSI that it wouldn\u2019t violate the city\u2019s ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>The City Council\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/1180975\/council-approves-csi-aviation-project.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approved CSI\u2019s plans<\/a>\u00a0to renovate and take over the space.<\/p>\n<p>In February, CSI appears to have lost a bid to keep providing ICE services to a New York contractor. The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied a CSI protest that month over ICE\u2019s selection of\u00a0Classic Air Charter, Inc. (CAC), of Huntington, New York,\u00a0to provide\u00a0air services, including daily scheduled \u201clarge aircraft charter flights\u201d (DSLA) out of Miami, Alexandria, Louisiana, Brownsville and San Antonio, Texas and Mesa, Arizona, \u201cas well as special high risk charter (SHRC) flights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Government Accountability Office wrote that the contract \u2013 a single task order in its words \u2013 was intended to replace five separate task orders \u2013 one for each DSLA hub airport \u2013 currently held by CSI.<\/p>\n<p>CSI had valued that contract at $850 million, the GAO report shows.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how the loss of that contract will affect CSI, the company has yet to answer emailed questions from NMID.<\/p>\n<h3>GOP donor and would-be politician owns CSI<\/h3>\n<p>CSI Aviation is prominent in New Mexico in part because of its owner. In addition to his unsuccessful bids for governor and U.S. Senate in 2010 and 2014, respectively, Weh is a former state chairman of the Republican party and has figured prominently in the state\u2019s political scene. He and his family also give generously to Republican causes. And CSI Aviation\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/disclosures.house.gov\/ld\/ldxmlrelease\/2018\/RR\/300944649.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">employs<\/a>\u00a0a professional lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. to lobby on Federal Aviation Administration and excise tax issues.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17555\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17555\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Weh-Allen-CSI-sign.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"336\" height=\"270\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Allen Weh, shown standing in front of a sign for his aviation company.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A review of state and federal campaign records shows Weh and his wife Rebecca, plus their daughter Debbie, who like her father is a former chairman of New Mexico\u2019s Republican party, and her husband, Steve Maestas, have made significant contributions to Republican candidates and political committees this election cycle, at both the federal and state level.<\/p>\n<p>The family has given $156,200 to federal candidates and committees, including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/fecimg\/?201801319091159684\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$100,000<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trumpvictorypac.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trump Victory<\/a>\u00a0last October, an independent political committee. Of that, $10,800 was transferred to Donald Trump\u2019s personal campaign committee. Allen Weh contributed $30,000 to the Republican National Committee. The family supported Mick Rich for U.S. Senate and Monty Newman in his failed primary bid for the congressional seat being vacated by Steve Pearce.<\/p>\n<p>The family and CSI Aviation altogether have given $49,200 at the state level, including $31,500 to Pearce\u2019s gubernatorial bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Albuquerque-based CSI Aviation, Inc. has won multiple contracts for transportation and relocation services that occurred in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234,705],"class_list":["post-596595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children","tag-money-in-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}