Months after the shuttering of a controversial tent city in the West Texas desert, a local nonprofit and a San Antonio catering firm once again are housing and feeding migrant teens detained at the border by the federal government — this time at a site 100 miles from here.

BCFS (formerly Baptist Child and Family Services) is running the new migrant child shelter in Carrizo Springs under contract with the Health and Human Services Department. The RK Group catering firm is providing food onsite as a subcontractor, BCFS confirmed.

The federal contract awarded to BCFS is worth more than $300 million and runs through Jan. 31.

The children’s shelter, located on the site of a former oil workers camp in Dimmit County, southwest of San Antonio, can hold up to 1,300 people. It began admitting children this week.

BCFS is a global nonprofit with headquarters in San Antonio. Both BCFS and the RK Group operated last year at the federal government’s tent city in Tornillo near El Paso, which at its peak held 2,800 children.

That facility shut down in January amid concerns that employees hired to work among the children had not undergone FBI background checks. All prospective staff at Carrizo Springs will have background checks, according to HHS.

Nonetheless, the new shelter is attracting controversy as outrage has grown over conditions in Border Patrol facilities elsewhere in Texas.

On Wednesday, three people, including a Democratic congressional hopeful, were arrested during a protest outside the Carrizo Springs shelter.

City Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said RK’s involvement in the facility is especially problematic, given the firm’s lucrative contract to provide food at San Antonio’s Convention Center.

The RK Group has held that contract, currently valued at $225 million over 10 years, since 1972.

“It really does just break my heart that there are San Antonio companies that have benefited from the prosperity of our city who are participating and profiting from what have essentially been called concentration camps by other people,” Gonzales said in an interview.

“I would hope that any company that our city supports, that our city contracts with, would not be participating — that they wouldn’t profit from it, that they provide a service that needs to be provided if they must, but to not profit from it,” she added.

Greg Kowalski, president and CEO of the RK Group, defended the firm’s involvement at the shelter.

“RK Group is committed to treating the children at the Carrizo Springs shelter, who are between the ages of 13 and 17, with dignity and care,” he said. “This includes providing them quality, nutritious meals.

“As in other incidents of humanitarian need and natural disaster, RK Group will provide this relief service as long as the need exists. Hunger knows no politics, and we are committed to providing food services to these children in crisis.”

Matt Gilley, a professor of management at the Greehey School of Business at St. Mary’s University, said that “in terms of the optics for RK, it’s risky, because it’s such a highly politicized and challenging issue.”

He added, however, that the profit motive can ensure that companies provide quality services — even in a humanitarian crisis.

“Without a profit motive, fewer organizations will vie for that contract, and the outcomes may not be as good for the people who find themselves in need,” said Gilley, who specializes in business strategy and ethics.

“I certainly realize why people would be upset at the thought of a company profiting from this situation,” he said. “As I understand it, the RK Group is working with a system of nonprofit organizations in this instance. That’s an important nuance. And, for-profit companies like the RK group have very high levels of expertise in their fields, which is what you want in a crisis situation like this.”

HHS is one of three government agencies that house migrants. The others are Customs and Border Protection, which operates Border Patrol facilities, and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement. HHS houses only migrant children.

Children who arrive without legal guardians or with parents who have criminal backgrounds are deemed unaccompanied minors and are moved from Border Patrol facilities into the custody of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement.

For a time last year, the Trump administration imposed a “zero tolerance” policy under which all immigrants entering the country without permission were criminally charged and separated from their children, who were placed in government custody. The administration abandoned the policy in the face of a public outcry.

However, lawyers and advocates have said some children still are being separated from parents based on unfounded criminal allegations, and that relatives who could serve as legal guardians aren’t being allowed to do so.

The children are housed by HHS until their sponsors — family members living in the United States — are vetted and approved. The Trump administration has placed additional background check requirements on sponsors, prolonging the time children spend in HHS custody.

Last week, Congress passed a $4.6 billion bill to provide humanitarian aid to migrants in HHS and Homeland Security facilities, after reports of crowded and unsanitary conditions at Border Patrol facilities.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, toured some of those facilities this week. On Friday, Castro distinguished between the Border Patrol and HHS sites.

“We would prefer to have people moved out of the Border Patrol facilities as fast as possible, and the Border Patrol processing centers are in a category of bad all by themselves,” Castro said. “But still, the whole system moves much too slowly, and the Trump administration has set up a system to detain people longer rather than placing them with family members or sponsors who can then be a place for them to stay while they wait for their court date.”

Castro added: “Part of the problem is, it’s become a multibillion-dollar industry to warehouse these folks. I don’t think it should be a for-profit endeavor for anyone.”

Hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly Central American asylum-seekers, have been apprehended or have presented themselves at ports of entry in recent months, the highest monthly totals in over seven years, according to Customs and Border Protection.

HHS says it has struggled to find enough beds for the children, and that as of June 10 it had received more than 52,000 children from Homeland Security agencies this fiscal year — a 60 percent increase compared with last year.

“If these numbers continue, this fiscal year HHS will care for the largest number of (migrant children) in the program’s history,” HHS said in a statement.

On Wednesday, more than 100 activists drove to Carrizo Springs to protest the opening of the new shelter.

Last month, employees of Wayfair, an online furniture seller, walked off their jobs at the company’s headquarters in Boston to protest the sale of $200,000 worth of furniture to BCFS for the Carrizo Springs shelter.

Agencies that have contracted with the government to care for migrant children have come under fire for profiting from a humanitarian crisis. Jose Sanchez, founder and CEO of Southwest Key, which operates shelters for migrant youths, stepped down in March after a public outcry over the $1.5 million in total compensation he collected in 2016.

bchasnoff@express-news.net