Corporation that holds migrant children backs out of plans to hold holiday party at Trump golf club

Professional services provider Caliburn International, which includes in its portfolio government contracts to detain unaccompanied migrant children, has canceled plans to host its 2019 holiday party at one of President Trump’s golf clubs, according to CBS News.

A company email, sent Monday after initial reports of the plan leaked to the press, said the location would be changed from Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, according to CBS.

“Our team leaders have made the decision to change the venue so that our employee holiday event is focused on the spirit of compassion and thankfulness to our employees who work every day supporting missions of humanitarian service, national security, and medical care around the world,” the company said in the email, according to CBS.

The company had faced criticism for its choice of venue.

“Obviously for a contractor that has hundreds of millions of dollars in business before the federal government, I don’t think it’s any small coincidence that they’re patronizing a Trump business,” Virginia Canter, the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s chief ethics counsel and a former White House associate counsel to Presidents Obama and Clinton, told CBS.

“These facilities are ways for people to influence the administration. So it’s not just buying influence, it’s also buying access,” she added.

The contractor was already under scrutiny after former White House chief of staff John Kelly joined its board of directors in May. While he was still a White House employee, the federal government ramped up its business relationship with Comprehensive Health Services, one of its subsidiaries. It began operating at least four more detention facilities in Texas in 2019.

The company continues to operate its facilities for migrant children in Texas and had just under 4,000 minors in custody nationwide as of Nov. 12, according to CBS, citing government data.