ST. CROIX — A federal procurement document that prompted local and national reports about a possible new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on St. Thomas was not a solicitation for an actual construction project, according to both the solicitation documents and ICE.
On July 20, TIME magazine reported that documents showed the Trump administration was seeking construction companies to build or expand immigration detention facilities at various locations across the United States and its territories, including St. Thomas and Puerto Rico.
According to the article, a request for proposals published July 17 described plans to expand the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas and listed 12 other locations where new facilities could be built or existing ones expanded: St. Thomas; Miami; Honolulu; El Centro, California; Florence, Arizona; Batavia, New York; Broadview, Illinois; Oakdale, Louisiana; El Paso, Texas; Huntsville, Texas; Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The report prompted coverage in Virgin Islands media that the Trump administration was soliciting bids for the possible construction of a new ICE detention facility on St. Thomas based on the July 17 request for proposals.
When contacted by WTJX, an ICE spokesperson provided the following message: “ICE is not currently soliciting proposals for a secure housing facility in St. Thomas. The recent solicitation posted is part of a standard procurement process to identify qualified contractors for future projects. As stated in the solicitation, the project referenced is a sample project used solely for evaluation purposes. No award is being made for an actual construction or secure housing facility at this time. This is a paper exercise only, intended to assess contractor capabilities and ensure readiness for future needs.”
The general scope of work in the document from SAM.gov relating to the single award construction contract on St. Thomas described the design and construction of a new secure housing unit consisting of 26 modular cells. However, the site description contained language referring to the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas, stating that the project site would occupy approximately 10,000 square feet in the northwestern quadrant of the Port Isabel campus. The same Port Isabel language also appeared in several other solicitations, including those for Batavia, El Centro, El Paso, and Aguadilla.
The solicitation documents also included a disclaimer stating that the list of projects was “illustrative only” and was provided to convey “the general scope and nature of work that may be performed under this contract.” The documents stated that inclusion of a project “does not obligate the government to issue a task order for that project, nor does it guarantee that any task orders or awards will be made” under the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. They also noted that the government reserved the right to issue task orders for other construction-related projects consistent with the overall scope of the contract.
