This story was a collaboration between the Investigative Undertaking on Race and Fairness and Borderless Journal.
CHICAGO — Tens of hundreds of latest arrivals have handed via Chicago’s migrant shelter system. Lots of them may need had their information compromised due to how shelter staff and contractors dealt with their private info, in accordance with former shelter workers and paperwork reviewed by Borderless Journal and the Investigative Undertaking on Race and Fairness.
In a criticism submitted to the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) this month, two former Favourite Healthcare Staffing case managers contracted by Favourite alleged that Chicago’s shelters violated well being info privateness legal guidelines by permitting shelter workers to entry and obtain delicate info on their very own private units. The criticism notes that Favourite, the staffing firm the Metropolis of Chicago employed to handle the migrant shelters, didn’t require information to be encrypted and allowed staff and unbiased contractors to share medical and different private info over insecure communication channels.
In accordance with the criticism filed with HHS’s Workplace of Civil Rights, an unknown variety of Favourite staff and unbiased contractors, together with people who not labored within the shelters, had been capable of entry migrants’ info with out authorization.
Each former case managers who filed the criticism with the federal authorities spoke to Borderless and the Investigative Undertaking and confirmed reporters shelter information that they may nonetheless entry regardless of not being employed by Favourite, although they famous they solely accessed information for submitting their HHS declare and exhibiting reporters. Moreover, they shared documentation they’d collected from dozens of migrants who had grow to be victims of extortion threats and scams following the mishandling of their information.
These are “ongoing administrative and management failures inside immigration shelters,” mentioned Anna P. Vizcarra, one in all two former case managers who filed the criticism on behalf of round 60 migrants who got here to her expressing considerations in regards to the mishandling of information. The second former workers member, who we’re calling Sam, requested to make use of a pseudonym out of concern that it could have an effect on their skill to search out employment within the discipline.
“Many staff who left or had been terminated from the shelters had been capable of retain entry to delicate resident info after their departure, and in some circumstances, might have taken copies with them,” they wrote of their criticism.
The 2 mentioned in an interview that they haven’t but obtained a response to their criticism, which they filed with the federal authorities on Nov. 6. As of the time of publication, Borderless and the Investigative Undertaking had been awaiting response from the workplace of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Favourite and Chicago Division of Household and Help Providers Commissioner Brandie V. Knazze didn’t reply to a request for remark.
However Vizcarra and Sam shared testimonies and images offered by residents who say that they’ve began to obtain unsolicited letters, texts, calls and emails from unknown sources notifying them of mortgage approvals and private damage complaints, in addition to hyperlinks that look like phishing or rip-off makes an attempt. In some circumstances, people reported to Vizcarra that they’d obtained threats of extortion over the cellphone from unknown numbers.
“The breaches present a disregard for required safeguards, suggesting each negligence and potential willful disregard for the privateness and safety of weak people,” Vizcarra and Sam wrote of their criticism.
Borderless and the Investigative Undertaking reviewed dozens of examples of inner record-keeping and communications from a number of shelters. These data included spreadsheets designed to maintain monitor of present shelter residents and WhatsApp, textual content and e mail messages shared amongst Favourite workers. In some circumstances, threads included county well being officers.
One spreadsheet that tracked present shelter residents contained, amongst different issues, migrants’ date of beginning, household standing, race, nationality, sexuality, allergic reactions, prescription drugs, particular wants and lodging, and all types of contact info.
In accordance with the previous case managers, Favourite Healthcare Staffing maintained spreadsheets like these for every of the migrant shelters, which had been accessible and downloadable on workers’s private units. The sheets appeared to haven’t any controls over who might edit or take away information.
“As quickly as I began at Halsted [the largest migrant shelter] the supervisor requested me if I had a pc,” mentioned Vizcarra, who was employed by Favourite in late 2023. “Once I mentioned sure, he informed me I’d be utilizing my laptop.”
Vizcarra mentioned that this involved her as a result of private units should not monitored and might be taken off the premises. “You may take your laptop anyplace after work — and it comprises all of the details about the residents — race, photos, the whole lot,” she mentioned. She mentioned that after being transferred to work at a special Chicago shelter run by Favourite in January 2024, staff used comparable practices.
Each Vizcarra and Sam beforehand labored in federal shelters for migrants in California, Texas and Florida, the place they mentioned digital safety necessities had been inflexible. Administration allowed workers to make use of their private cell telephones solely in circumstances of emergency, and staff did information entry in encrypted software program on laptops that had been offered by their employer. Workers had been prohibited from taking laptops with delicate information from the shelter constructing.
In a single WhatsApp thread shared with Borderless and the Investigative Undertaking, greater than a dozen workers members at a shelter in Pilsen repeatedly shared migrants’ delicate info — together with medical info, beginning dates, mobile phone numbers, household standing and images as they organized quarantine lodging throughout a chickenpox outbreak late final yr.
Town has run an emergency shelter system for migrants for over two years. That system, administered largely by Favourite, has been the primary cease for almost 50,000 individuals looking for asylum in america. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced earlier this month that almost all of the town’s migrant shelters will shut by the tip of the yr.
A Kansas-based staffing company that makes a speciality of healthcare placements, Favourite was first contracted by the town in September 2022, shortly after Texas officers introduced that they might ship asylum seekers to Chicago, amongst different Democratic cities. Within the following two years, Favourite arrange and staffed greater than two dozen shelters with supervisors, case managers, safety personnel and different workers. The corporate has charged the town round $362 million for its companies.
These companies embody managing an oversight system for migrants residing in shelters. In an investigation revealed earlier this week, Borderless and the Investigative Undertaking discovered that complaints filed by migrants went with out response for weeks and shelter workers accused of misconduct had been not often disciplined. Migrants and staffers interviewed mentioned they feared retaliation for talking up about poor shelter circumstances and therapy from workers.
Town has defended its reliance on Favourite regardless of public criticism of the excessive price of its companies and repeated allegations of poor circumstances within the shelters.
“Favourite is our solely answer,” Division of Household and Help Providers First Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Ernst informed the Chicago Tribune in August.
The next month, Mayor Johnson elevated the town’s contract with the corporate by one other $100 million.
Town plans to finish its contract with Favourite by the tip of the yr.
This investigation was supported with funding from the Knowledge-Pushed Reporting Undertaking. The Knowledge-Pushed Reporting Undertaking is funded by the Google Information Initiative in partnership with Northwestern College | Medill.
