Overview

Two Alaska Native corporations — NANA Regional Corporation (via subsidiary Akima) and Bering Straits Native Corporation (via subsidiary Global Precision Systems) — have become among the largest operators and service providers in the federal immigration detention system. They secure contracts through the SBA 8(a) program, which gives contracting advantages to Alaska Native corporations designated as minority- and economically-disadvantaged.

This is one of the most significant and underreported structural features of the detention pipeline: Indigenous-owned corporations operating the machinery of mass deportation, using a civil rights-era contracting set-aside designed to help disadvantaged communities.

NANA / Akima

• Revenue: $2.8 billion (most recent year), ~80% from Akima
• ICE contract value (2025): Approaching $300 million (up ~$100M from prior year)
• Total ICE contracts (past decade): Nearly $1.2 billion
• Headquarters: Kotzebue, AK (roughly 30 miles north of Arctic Circle)
• Key facilities operated:
  • Krome North Service Processing Center (Miami, FL) — operated since 2014; contract valued at $500M+ over 11 years; 4 deaths in ICE custody in early 2025
  • Guantanamo Bay migrant detention facility — $163M contract (won under Biden administration); security services for immigrant detention portion
  • Half-dozen other ICE detention facilities nationwide
• DHS IG findings: Akima Global Services faulted for violating use-of-force standards at Krome — chokehold on detainee, pepper-spraying through solitary confinement door slot

Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC)

• ICE contracts: 230 task orders with ICE stretching back to 2015 (via Global Precision Systems LLC)
• Facilities served: El Centro (CA), El Paso (TX), Baltimore (MD) — facility support services
• Shareholder divestment campaign: Launched January 2026 by shareholders Charlene Aqpik Apok, Ayyu Qassataq, and Jessica Saniguq Ullrich
• Petition language: “As BSNC shareholders and descendants, we are deeply concerned about BSNC’s complicity in inflicting harm on Indigenous peoples through ICE detention facilities”

The 8(a) Mechanism

The SBA 8(a) Business Development Program provides contracting advantages to Alaska Native corporations, which have a unique status under the program:

• Unlike individual 8(a) participants (9-year term limit), ANC subsidiaries can participate indefinitely
• ANCs can receive sole-source contracts of unlimited value
• ANCs can own multiple 8(a) firms simultaneously
• This creates a structural incentive for ANCs to pursue large federal detention contracts that individual small businesses cannot access

Shareholder Revolt

NANA

• March 2025: Shareholders begin publicly questioning migrant detention contracts
• April 2025: ADN publishes shareholders speaking out against involvement
• October 2025: Bloomberg/Alaska Public investigation reveals full scope — $1.2B over decade, $300M in 2025
• NANA’s former president publicly states corporation is “abandoning crucial values” through its role in mass deportation
• Inupiat values tension: NANA is supposed to uphold Inupiat Iliqusiat (values), but shareholders say detention role makes a mockery of those values

BSNC

• January 12, 2026: Alaska Beacon reports shareholders formally petition BSNC to divest from all ICE-associated contracts
• January 26, 2026: ADN op-ed argues “Alaska Native corporations’ ICE contracts endanger all Indigenous people”

Why This Matters

1. Scale: NANA/Akima is the single biggest recipient of ICE contracts issued under the 8(a) program
2. Structural: The 8(a) mechanism allows indefinite, sole-source contracts — a pipeline feature that persists regardless of administration
3. Accountability gap: Private operators face less oversight than government-run facilities
4. Indigenous complicity: The irony of Indigenous-owned corporations operating detention infrastructure targeting immigrants, many of whom are themselves Indigenous peoples from Latin America
5. Deaths: 4 people died at Akima-operated Krome North in early 2025 alone

Sources

• Alaska Public: Lucrative ICE detention centers bring money and anger (Oct 23, 2025)
• Bloomberg: Trump’s Unlikely ICE Detention Giant Is an Alaska Native Company (Oct 23, 2025)
• Alaska Public: ANC subsidiary running Guantanamo Bay detention (Mar 7, 2025)
• Alaska Public: Shareholders question migrant detention contracts (Mar 28, 2025)
• ADN: Shareholders speak out against NANA involvement (Apr 6, 2025)
• Alaska Beacon: Shareholders ask BSNC to divest (Jan 12, 2026)
• ADN Opinion: ANC ICE contracts endanger all Indigenous people (Jan 26, 2026)
• Alaska Public: Shareholders say profits not worth human toll (Oct 31, 2025)