FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 30, 2023
Whistleblower Makes Disclosures to Congress About Substandard Medical Care in CBP Custody and Lack of Contractor Oversight
Following Years of Internal Whistleblower Disclosures and the Death of a Child in Custody, Government Accountability Project Calls on Congress to Investigate CBP Medical Contracts
WASHINGTON – Today, Government Accountability Project sent a letter to Congress detailing the whistleblower disclosures of our client, Mr. Troy Hendrickson, regarding concerning performance failures by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) medical contractor, Loyal Source Government Services, which were compounded by the unwillingness of the CBP contracting office to hold Loyal Source accountable. Mr. Hendrickson began raising concerns about Loyal Source’s dangerous underperformance on the CBP Medical Services Contract nearly two years prior to the tragic death of 8-year-old Anadith Reyes Alvarez in May 2023, a death that might have been prevented had Mr. Hendrickson’s warnings been heeded rather than silenced.
Beginning in August of 2021 when he was detailed to work with the CBP Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) as a Contracting Officer Representative, Mr. Hendrickson immediately raised concerns internally regarding problematic practices he witnessed, including unfit medical providers, severe understaffing, privacy breaches, and a failure to report sexual harassment in a CBP medical facility. This negligence resulted in substandard healthcare for noncitizens held in CBP custody. Mr. Hendrickson’s complaints, made with the support of OCMO leadership, went largely ignored and unaddressed by the CBP Office of Acquisition, the entity with authority to hold Loyal Source to the terms of the Medical Services Contract. Despite his multiple requests over several months to take corrective action, such as issuing mandated performance appraisals and sending a remedial notice known as a “cure letter” instructing Loyal Source to fix their performance problems, the Contracting Office consistently refused to hold the contractor accountable. Instead, officials from CBP retaliated against Mr. Hendrickson by removing him from his position and preventing him from working on any future CBP medical contracts. Over a year later, 8-year-old Anadith Reyes Alvarez died in CBP custody due to avoidable medical negligence by Loyal Source Personnel.
After Anadith’s death, CBP replaced the head of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, while Office of Acquisition officials got promotions, and Loyal Source is still the contractor for CBP medical services. It has recently been reported that on August 10, 2023, months after Anadith’s death and over a year after Mr. Hendrickson and OCMO requested it, the CBP contracting office has finally issued Loyal Source a cure letter, validating Mr. Hendrickson’s complaints.
In our letter to Congress, we call for thorough and prompt oversight into Loyal Source and its ongoing failure to comply with mandated medical care of noncitizens in CBP custody as well as oversight into the CBP contracting office’s gross mismanagement, gross waste of taxpayer dollars, and abuse of authority in its refusal to hold Loyal Source accountable for the company’s contract performance failures. Congress must ensure that Mr. Hendrickson and any other current or former CBP or Loyal Source employees who have raised or will raise concerns internally are not subject to retaliation for engaging in protected whistleblowing activity that could save lives.
Government Accountability Project Immigration Counsel Andrea Meza, commented,
“Today we and our client, Mr. Troy Hendrickson, demand accountability for the years of dangerous underperformance of the CBP medical contractor and the alarming lack of oversight of CBP’s critical mandate to provide medical services to noncitizens in the agency’s custody. The CBP Office of Chief Medical Officer and the Medical Services Contract were created in direct response to an ongoing pattern of deaths of children in CBP custody. It is unconscionable that when the contractor, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars, failed to meet OCMO’s medical standards, contracting officials refused at every turn to hold the contractor to account and instead retaliated against Mr. Hendrickson. Mr. Hendrickson has been sounding the alarm within CBP and to multiple oversight entities for years, and had his warnings been heeded, Anadith Reyes Alvarez might be alive today. It is long past time for Congress and federal oversight entities to take action so that no other family will suffer the loss of their child due to medical negligence in CBP custody.”
Contact: Andrew Harman, Communications Director
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 926-3304
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Government Accountability Project
Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, Government Accountability Project’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, Government Accountability Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.