Rep. Pramila Jayapal Launches Congressional Inquiry Into McKinsey's ICE Contracts and Detention Recommendations

U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee on Immigration and Citizenship, writes to Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, demanding detailed information about the firm’s work with ICE. The letter requests specific documentation about facility visits, budget recommendations, cost-cutting proposals, and any considerations for community-based alternatives to detention.

Jayapal’s inquiry follows ProPublica’s December 2019 investigation revealing that McKinsey proposed ‘detention savings opportunities’ including cuts in spending on food for migrants and medical care for detainees. ‘ICE’s detention system is marked by its inhumane and punitive conditions,’ Jayapal writes. ‘It is a rapidly expanding system that is wholly unaccountable and incentivizes profiteering and politics over human dignity and due process.’

The Congressional letter highlights that cost savings McKinsey reportedly suggested are similar to those ICE contractors have implemented across the detention system, resulting in documented harm to individuals in the agency’s custody. Private prison companies with which ICE contracts are incentivized to cut corners for greater profit, putting migrant lives at risk. Jayapal’s inquiry connects McKinsey’s consulting recommendations to a broader pattern of detention industry profiteering that prioritizes cost reduction over human welfare.

The letter specifically requests: identification of all facilities visited by McKinsey personnel, dates of those visits, identities of private contractors or government officials present; Congressional budget justification documents McKinsey consulted or reviewed; all recommendations provided to ICE on cost savings for immigration detention and enforcement; and explanation of any considerations for cutting costs through community-based alternatives to detention. This comprehensive information request aims to establish the full scope of McKinsey’s involvement in shaping immigration detention policy.