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As chief of the Border Patrol, Carla Provost oversaw family separation under President Donald Trump. Her tenure was a particularly fatal stretch for children, with four dying in the agency’s care in a six-month span.
As chief, she also came under fire for her membership in a xenophobic Facebook group populated with past and current Border Patrol officers. Members of the group frequently shared jokes and memes that made light of migrant deaths.
Yet in 2021, during the Biden administration, she was hired as site director of the Pecos Children’s Center in West Texas, ensuring the care of migrant children as border crossings increased early that year, according to records we obtained.
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The 2,000-bed Pecos emergency shelter is run by the San Antonio-based nonprofit Endeavors, which has a contract worth up to $789 million with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to run the site.
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Provost is no longer site director but is currently an Endeavors contractor, according to the company.
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A Department of Health and Human Services official said the agency didn’t know Provost ran the Pecos shelter, and federal rules prohibit it from controlling contractors’ hiring and firing decisions.
Setareh Ghandehari, an advocacy director for Detention Watch Network, described news of Provost’s involvement at the Pecos shelter as “appalling.”
“Carla Provost, who was complicit in tearing hundreds of children apart from the loving care of their families, cannot be trusted with caring for children,” she said.
Provost could not be reached for comment.
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