Illegal immigrants flooding across the US border in Del Rio in 2021 – screengrab
In yet another brutal indictment of the Biden Administration’s handling of the Southern Border, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new report this week detailing several procedural violations and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars through border operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and contractors.
Following the $80 million-plus contract that the Biden administration awarded to the non-profit group Endeavors to provide hotel room lodging for illegal immigrants, the IG report found a lack of “justification” given for the exorbitant amount of money being allocated, leading to millions in wasted dollars. In all, a whopping $17 million was wasted on empty rooms in six hotels between April and June 2021.
The decision to award Endeavors the housing contract for illegals was also criticized at the time because the Biden administration subverted the traditional selection process and allowed the non-profit to secure the contract without opening it up to any competition, also called a no-bid contract. In other words, this relationship has been shady since the beginning.
Although the amount is fairly modest when compared to the recently passed trillion-plus-dollar spending package, or even the 3 billion that’s been sent to Ukraine so far, the complete waste of millions in taxpayer dollars is a notable issue. The fact that over 3 million illegals that we know of have crossed the border since Biden took office and the subsequent overcrowding in ICE facilities, should suggest that there would be no vacancies in any of the hotel rooms. How did almost 1/4th of the money end up being spent on nothing?
From the IG report:
“ICE did not adequately justify the need for the sole source contract to house migrant families and spent approximately $17 million for hotel space and services at six hotels that went largely unused between April and June 2021. ICE’s sole source contract with Endeavors resulted in millions of dollars being spent on unused hotel space.”
In addition to the misuse of funds and the lack of justification for awarding so much, the report also concluded that ICE officials and their contractors committed repeated violations of Covid-19 protocols, so much so that the IG stated ICE was “putting [the] outside public at risk” with their careless handling of illegal aliens, proving, once again, the covid measures aren’t about saving lives or protecting people – it’s about power and control
In short, the report found that just about every procedure across the board was not being followed properly.
The IG Report continues:
“In addition, Endeavors did not meet new healthcare protocols or ensure proper COVID-19 testing for families. For example, families were not tested by ICE for COVID-19 prior to being transported to hotels and were not always tested by Endeavors staff upon arrival at or departure from hotels, putting migrant families and the outside population at risk of contracting COVID-19. Further, Endeavors did not follow required ICE standards to ensure the proper care for housing migrant families while such families were residing in its facilities.”
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin broke the news and published a copy of the IG report in a tweet on Saturday. A link to the full report can be found here.
“NEW: DHS IG report finds ICE spent $17 million on a no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused last spring, wasting millions of $. IG found ICE & the vendor also failed to adequately COVID test migrants, “putting outside population at risk.’”