Akal Security and Labor Issues and Contracts with ICE

Quote

Thirty minutes north of Santa Fe, in the high desert town of Española, New Mexico, lie the headquarters of a privately-held security firm whose corporate campus is as unique as the affiliate organizations surrounding it.

Akal Security lists its HQ at 7 Infinity Loop, a modest structure just a short walk from the command centers of other linked operations with a global footprint, specifically Sikh Dharma International, Sikhnet, and the 3HO Foundation. The Hacienda de Guru Ram Das Gurdawa is also on site, and the Kundalini Research Institute is just down the street. All are related, but only one (according to its website) has had an ongoing, 20-year working relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Quote

kal Security has been in business since the end of the Carter administration, and has, along with its subsidiary Coastal International Security, executed countless federal contracts for the DoD and Justice Department, the State Department, DHS, and other government entities. Courthouses around the country are guarded by Akal officers, and the Judicial Branch accounts for the majority of the $113 million Akal made in 2017 directly from federal contracts. A smaller percentage describes the work it does on behalf of the TSA (if you fly out of Orlando, BWI, or Kansas City, those are Akal employees screening you and patting you down). But it’s money they continue to make from ICE?—?the millions that pass through other contractors, for which they partner with or subcontract under?—?that is the basis of the further scrutiny presented here.

Akal has worked with ICE (and the INS before it) for 20 years. It said as much in their “Special Statement” released on June 26, in the wake of the uproar over Trump’s family separation policy.

These contracts primarily focused on two specialized needs: detention management and transportation (guarding detainees at ICE detention or processing centers) and as aviation security officers (receiving detainees from ICE custody, usually on the tarmac, sometimes chained, handcuffed, or shackled, sometimes not, and guarding those detainees on deportation flights operated by ICE Air).

Akal claims it no longer bids on ICE contracts, and that appears as true as it is unnecessary. For over a decade, it has worked as a subcontractor with and/or for three Alaska-based, Native American-owned corporations that secured ICE contracts for detention management. And the company that held the majority of ICE Air contracts since the mid 2000s, CSI Aviation, in turn contracted Akal to provide aviation security officers (ASOs) on those deportation flights. (Regarding CSI and Akal, the nature of their relationship appears to be supported in certain lawsuits brought against Akal by former ASOs; other class action suits and the company’s own archived newsletters describe contracts interacting with ICE directly. Either way, in court docs Akal acknowledges that the contract ran through December 1, 2017.)

Whether directly or indirectly, since 2002 Akal officers have monitored detainees at ICE facilities in AZ, CA, TX, NY, and FL, as well as executed the deportation policies via chartered aircraft for three administrations.

If only the criticism ended there, that of Akal working with ICE, then as now, while maintaining such close ties to a religious organization. It does not. Detaining and shipping migrants is a business, one that profits off of trafficking in human misery. And there are some serious concerns about the way (and why) Akal chooses to be aligned with it.