Endeavors (Family Endeavors)
Endeavors (formerly Family Endeavors) is a San Antonio-based nonprofit that became a major player in the immigration detention and migrant services industry, receiving billions in federal contracts. The organization illustrates how the detention-industrial complex extends beyond traditional for-profit prison companies into the nonprofit sector.
Federal Contracts
- Total Biden-era contracts/grants/subgrants: ~$3.2 billion
- Largest contract: $75 billion “Indefinite Delivery Contract” for services to unaccompanied migrant children (HHS/ORR). Government paid $238.8 million under this contract by end of 2024.
- ICE contract (March 2021): $87 million for 1,239 beds and services at U.S.-Mexico border, using six hotels for short-term migrant processing into ATD program
DOGE Termination (2025)
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) targeted Endeavors, terminating an HHS contract paying $18 million per month to operate an empty facility in Pecos, West Texas. The total contract value was $215 million. The facility was sitting empty at the time of termination.
Revolving Door
Endeavors hired a Biden administration official before receiving its massive border contract, drawing scrutiny from Axios and congressional investigators.
ICE Warehouse Strategy
ICE confirmed it purchased land and a facility on the East Side of San Antonio (see san-antonio-tx-warehouse) as part of its nationwide detention expansion, with planning documents indicating the facility could be operational by November 2026. While this is a direct ICE purchase (part of the “Reengineering Initiative”), Endeavors’ presence in San Antonio and experience with the facility model makes it a potential operator.
Significance
Endeavors shows that the detention-industrial complex is not exclusively a Republican phenomenon – the organization received its largest contracts under the Biden administration. The bipartisan nature of detention profiteering is a key feature of the system.