Western Marylanders woke up in January to stunning news that a warehouse in their backyard was being converted into an ICE detention center. After a court order, that renovation for the building in Williamsport is now on hold, but many were left wondering how the famously slow-moving federal government could do this in what seemed like a flash.
The answer is an obscure contracting vehicle overseen by the Navy and originally created for military use called the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract or WEXMAC that’s now being used by the Department of Homeland Security.
“It gives them this intensely fast way of just expediting the procurement process, but then also standing up what they consider turnkey detention facilities,” said Michael Wriston is a former defense intelligence professional and the founder of Project Saltbox, an ICE watchdog.
