RFI Instructions.pdf

Office of Acquisition Management U.S. Department of Homeland Security 801 I Street, NW Washington, DC 20536

Solicitation: 70CDCR23R00000006 February 15, 2023

Subject: RFI for Unaccompanied Children (UC) and Family Units (FAMU) Transportation Services

Instructions All Responses to this RFI/Sources Sought Synopsis must be sent to the following email addresses:

John.Cappello@ice.dhs.gov and Ian.Somppi@ice.dhs.gov

Introduction U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has a continuing and mission-critical responsibility for transporting apprehended noncitizens from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies.

Among the groups of noncitizens transferred from CBP to ICE are unaccompanied children (UC) and accompanied children (AC) that are part of a family units (FAMU). ICE is responsible for transporting UC to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) facilities located throughout the continental United States, Port of Entries (POE) and commercial flights to home country. FAMU’s are transported to ICE program offices, nongovernmental organizations, and ICE Air Operations staging locations.

The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information for planning purposes and to determine appropriate strategies to meet the Agency's requirements. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment for an RFP in the future. Responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this announcement and information submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned.

Interested parties are instructed to submit the following information: (Note: Do not exceed 5 pages per RFI submission)

• POC information (name, title, phone number, address, email address, etc.)

• Socio-economic status

• Brief company capability statement addressing this requirement

The Government contemplates awarding a five (5)-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle consisting of a one-year base period, and four (4) one-year options. The Service Contract Labor Standards Act is applicable to this acquisition. All required clauses, provisions shall be included in the solicitation and resulting contractual instrument.

The anticipated release date of the solicitation is third quarter FY23.

All business sizes and categories are encouraged to participate. All information received in response to this notice will be used to determine the appropriateness of set-asides for this requirement.

Requirement ICE is seeking the services of a responsible vendor that shares the philosophy of treating all UC and FAMUs with dignity and respect, while adhering to standard operating procedures and policies that allow for an effective, efficient, and incident free transport. The Contractor shall provide unarmed transportation staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment, and supplies necessary to provide on-demand transportation services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age and family units, seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year.

ICE transports UC and FAMUs via ground, commercial air, and charter flights. ICE estimates that approximately 88,424 UC will be transported annually through this contract: 14% air transportation and 86% via ground transportation. ICE estimates that approximately 72,550 FAMU individuals will be transported by the contractor per year: 21% commercial or charter air and 79% local ground transportation.

Throughout FY 20, 21, and 22, ICE transferred over 482,000 UC and FAMU individuals from various cities to various locations. Each origin location is unique and can occur nationwide.

Occasionally, travel is between multiple locations that may occur more than once or twice, but there are no set routes that happen on a regular basis. Transportation of UC is on demand and largely dependent on where ORR designates bedspace. Charter flights are required to transport UCs or FAMUs. UC transfers are dependent upon whether or not an ORR facility has enough bed space for a large capacity of UC. FY22 data shows that there were 512 charter flights. On these charter flights, ICE transported over 3,900 children to ORR facilities, and over 60,000 family members for domestic lateral movements and international expulsions and removals.

In some situations, such as flight delays, cancellations, etc.; the time the contractor maintains custody of the UC or family unit may be extended. In limited cases, overnight housing may be required. Use of the contractor’s staging/waiting rooms in satellite office space will be limited to 12 hours or less, and allow for ready access to food, water, clean clothes, hygiene products, and comfortable furniture. Staging/waiting satellite space is only intended to house minors for short periods of time and to assist with avoiding long waits in public areas such as airports, when possible.

The contractor shall provide for a hotel room whenever minors will remain in the contractor’s custody over 12 hours due to HHS placement, flight cancellations, or any other delay. In addition, the Contractor shall have personnel who are able to communicate with juveniles in their own designated language(s). While this may not require each employee to be fluent in all the encountered languages, personnel should have access to and knowledge of translation services.

Personnel shall have the knowledge and experience to transport individual children with special needs. Children with special needs may require a transportation method that is time saving and direct, i.e., by commercial airline. Contractor shall also provide for accompanying medical care.

Additionally, due to exigent circumstances, the Contractor shall be required to transport juveniles via ground to HUB airports or other staging areas that are not located within the area of initial apprehension.

The Contractor shall follow a fully developed training curriculum and transporting staff shall have the highest level of competency possible. Areas of training shall include, but are not limited to, the following: Airport rules and regulations for travelers, crisis intervention, child development, working with and transporting youth with special needs, transporting youth with behavioral problems, CPR & First Aid training, non-secured UAC policy and procedures and the implementation of contingency plans in the event of a crisis during transport, which include de-escalation techniques.

Background Investigations and Suitability Screenings will be conducted on all Contract Employees by the Office of Professional Responsibility and Personnel Security Operations (OPR-PSO). The Contractor shall agree that each employee working on this contract will successfully pass the DHS Employment Eligibility (E-Verify) program operated by USCIS to establish work authorization and U.S. Citizenship. Employees must reside in the United States.

Due Date Responses from Interested Parties are due by 4:00pm EST, Friday, February 28, 2023