Wall Street Journal
By Samuel Rubenfeld
June 25, 2018
There is tremendous reputational risk for companies linked in any way to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that separated infants and children from their parents as they crossed the southern U.S. border, according to crisis-communications experts.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending the separations for 20 days, but not before thousands of families, primarily from Central America, were divided at border crossings when parents were detained and their children were taken into government custody. Infants and toddlers were among the 2,342 children separated from their parents. The separation policy set off a firestorm of negative public opinion as media organizations published images of crying children and spoke to family members.
A number of companies struck contracts to help carry out the policy on behalf of the U.S. government. Others, such as some airlines, said they wouldn’t participate following the outcry.
“Companies tend to steer clear of political issues that are not material to their business, but there comes a point in time when businesses need to take a stand with their communication and action,” said James Walker, a vice president at the public-relations firm Ruder Finn.
Organizations providing services related to migrant detention include Comprehensive Health Services Inc., MVM Inc. and the nonprofit Southwest Key Programs. A Comprehensive Health Services spokeswoman referred questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Southwest Key, in a written statement, said it “does not support separating families at the border,” adding, “for every child who has come through our shelter doors, we start on day one to reunite them with their parents or a family sponsor and to provide the kind of service that will help them thrive.”
MVM said “there’s been a misperception of the role” the company is playing on the issue of migrant children, saying it transports families to government facilities rather than operating any housing or shelter for them.
MVM also said it was awarded “a contract to provide as-needed emergency support services” in 2017 to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, but that it received the contract prior to the zero-tolerance policy. It hasn’t performed any emergency support services for the office, nor does it anticipate performing any in the future, MVM said.
“MVM has not pursued any new contracts associated with undocumented families and children since the implementation of the current policy,” it said.
Both organizations seem to struggle with clarifying their roles in the immigrant detention issue and successfully controlling how they are perceived, based on their responses, said Nick Kalm, founder and president of Reputation Partners, a communications firm.
“Southwest Key makes some good points but they are undercut by their lack of empathy and assertion that they do ‘not support separating families at the border,’” he said, adding the company should be more “definitive” in stating what role they are playing in the detention process.
MVM’s response deserves credit for empathy, but it is attempting to parse its role in a way that exculpates the company, said Mr. Kalm. “Most members of the public will not view merely transporting children (versus operating shelters) as a distinction worth recognizing,” he said. “Either way, they are knee deep in the administration’s current practices.”
Consumer-facing businesses should proactively distance themselves from anything to do with immigrant detentions, like the airlines did, said Mr. Kalm. It is more of a judgment call for a company that doesn’t interact with consumers, he said.
It is hard for a company to defend itself if it is an identified participant in a global firestorm, said Davia Temin, president and chief executive of Temin & Co., a crisis-management firm.
Ms. Temin called the MVM statement “obtuse,” adding that “the public really doesn’t care if MVM has ‘empathy,’ or is contractually forced to do what they are doing.”
Southwest Key, she said, also doesn’t answer the key questions, saying the organization’s goal of family reunion is “totally unbelievable” in the context of carrying out the Trump administration’s policy.
A spokesman for Southwest Key said in response to the crisis-communications evaluators that it is easy to opine from the sidelines when not on the field, and “we don’t put a lot of credibility” on opinions made without the full context that went into the decision. An MVM spokesman said conveying accurate information about the firm and its services “is pretty basic stuff for us, and something we’ll continue to do.”
Actions matter rather than words in an issue fraught with such emotion, said Ms. Temin.
“Anyone associated with this government action is at risk of reputational damage, serious reputational damage,” she said.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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