Taxpayers tab to house migrant children at $3B — and counting
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The cost of housing tens of thousands of migrant children who have come across the southern border since President Joe Biden took office has reached $3 billion, according to a report.
© Provided by Washington Examiner
The Biden administration dished out massive federal contracts to private companies and nonprofit groups in its first 100 days to house children in government custody after federal facilities were stretched to their limits.
Between January and March, more than 33,000 unaccompanied children were picked up at the border, which is more than the number of children who came across in the previous 12 months combined. Children are held an average of one month while the government searches for an adult sponsor in the United States to discharge them to as they go through immigration proceedings. As of early May, nearly 25,000 children are in government custody, separated from their parents.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HOLDING NEARLY 25,000 MIGRANT CHILDREN
But more than $2 billion of the taxpayer money awarded to care for and house the children was awarded to organizations without going through the bidding process, according to an Associated Press review of contracts. Federal law requires government money be fairly awarded through a solicitation process in which companies can make a proposal for services they can provide and at what cost. That never happened in the case of two companies and one nonprofit group, which received the majority of funding spent to date.
The Department of Health and Human Services, whose Office of Refugee Resettlement cares for children after they are initially encountered on the southern border by Border Patrol agents, also diverged from policies that mandate any child care facility be state-licensed, a measure in place to prevent abuse and neglect of minors in government facilities.
Two HHS-contracted facilities closed suddenly in April. HHS said the children in them had been moved to other emergency shelters. However, in one case, a Houston-based center operated by the National Association of Christian Churches was abruptly shuttered in what sources said was due to abhorrent conditions inside. Teenage girls were at times forced to use plastic bags as toilets because there were not enough adults to walk them to a bathroom. Stacks of boxes were used to create rooms inside, where the girls were packed into tight spaces amid the coronavirus pandemic. An NACC official told the Houston Chronicle that HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had personally "begged" him to take the contract and that he had not sought out the work.
The $2 billion in no-bid contracts went to Deployed Resources of Rome, New York; Family Endeavors in San Antonio, Texas; and Rapid Deployment in Mobile, Alabama. Deployed Resources won a $719 contract to house 1,500 children at a time in Donna, Texas, and had been contracted during the Trump administration to set up immigration courts in tent facilities that were used in 2019 and 2020 to hear asylum claims. Rapid Deployment won two contracts worth $614 million to oversee the temporary child care center at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
Family Endeavors was awarded two contracts totaling $667 million from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Family Endeavors put together a plan to rent out all rooms in seven hotels in Arizona and Texas for the purpose of holding migrant families between when they are in Border Patrol custody and before they are released into the U.S.
However, in a media call with the White House on Thursday, Biden administration officials would not say if all hotels were in use or how many people were staying at the rented hotels. Additionally, Family Endeavors's senior director for government relations is a former Biden transition team official who selected political appointees to HHS and worked on Department of Homeland Security policy matters, a significant conflict of interest given his role securing the contracts.
Tags:News, White House, Joe Biden, Immigration, Border Crisis, Unaccompanied Minors
Original Author:Anna Giaritelli
Original Location:Taxpayers tab to house migrant children at $3B — and counting
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
Who is online
447 visitors
Good job, Joe and Kamala, on creating a crisis you still can't admit to.
What's another few billion in taxpayers dollars, anyways?
[Deleted]
This is what progressives voted for.
Good job.
/s
What do you suggest? Kick the little children to the curb? I thought Republicans were for family values and christians.
do you ever try to respond to what I actually write, or are you content asking inane questions?
Then answer the question.
ask an on topic question related to my post and I'll consider it.
BTW. in your haste to ask an inane question, you apparently overlooked the part I bolded.
I for one did NOT vote for the kind of unsubstantiated innuendo expressed by the author. I wonder why she didn't mention that 'Family Endeavors's senior director for government relations' worked for ICE until May, 2019? Guess that fact doesn't fit in her agenda.
What is going on at the border is because of Biden policies.
What is described in post 2 is the result of the Biden Admin.
Own it, libs!
WTF does that have to do with my comment Tex? Hint: NOTHING.
Actually, it's a result of YOU believing what you read without finding the facts for yourself.
Look, I don't give a flying fuck what you choose to believe.
And until you can recognize that at least part of the problem at the border is Biden's fault, you will stay in your cocoon.
The facts as described in post 2 are accurate.
Whether you believe them or not.
Ditto.
Look, I don't give a flying fuck what you choose to believe.
Prove it Tex. So far, all you've posted is innuendo. Got anything else?
Prove it to you?
Can't you do any of your own research?
Do you dispute the facts laid out in post 2?
Do you dispute that the dude advised the Biden Admin. and miraculously, just a few months after being hired, he managed to secure the largest contract his organization had ever received?
Which fucking facts are you disputing??????
YOU made the assertion and doubled down with your claim that 'the facts as described are accurate' so YOU have the burden of proof.
Prove it Tex.
Since YOU insist that 'the facts as described are accurate' you should be able to support ALL of the fucking facts as described Tex.
Please proceed.
I'm STILL not going to do your work for you.
believe me or believe the lies you tell yourself.
Doesn't make any difference to me at all.
I don;t owe you shit.
Translation: I think I can make proclamations without being called on to support them with facts.
Well done Tex.
Your translator is broken, probably beyond repair.
What a waste of the taxpayer's money that could benefit Citizens
Some care more for citizens of other countries than they do Americans.
Which is perfectly understandable--IF you are from another country.
[Deleted]
[Please do not derail to your own articles.]
You know that Trump was paying Mexico for those that we deported there right?
Oh and the ACTUAL cost is about a third of what the author of the seed claims. But hey, it's the Washington Examiner so BS is to be expected.
Seems like it would be simpler to just build housing in other countries.
Probably be cheaper, too.
Except US law mandates it...
US law calls for lots of things Democrats are more than willing to ignore--like being here legally and coming here legally.
The vast majority of immigrants entering since Jan. 2021 are children seeking asylum and have done so legally. Instead of ignoring that fact, I suggest you go READ the statute and educate yourself.
I don't give a flying fuck what you "suggest".
Pretend all you want that it is just asylum seekers coming.
Others grounded in reality know better.
Biden made it clear they were welcome to come. Denial is futile.
Ditto.
You seem to be having an issue with the concept of 'vast majority'. Try Webster's.
Yes, the children that Trump dumped in Mexico are welcome to come and apply for asylum.
I haven't denied anything Tex.
Ah, another open borders--let everyone come at anytime for any reason crazy.
The problem is that Democrats and the cartels have taken advantage of a good faith exception for actual aslyum seekers to undercut the system. Everyone is now an asylum seeker, though very few actually qualify under the definition. Biden tore up the negotiated third safe third country agreements to make sure everyone could reach the border, where , as instructed by the cartels and liberal immigration activists every illegal alien who comes into contact with a fed simply declare they are seeking asylum (completely subverting the intent of the asylum provision). Yet again, they've intentionally undercut our laws to make it as easy as possible for illegal aliens to enter and stay in the country.
It's despicably dishonest.
Democrats tend to think that everyone qualifies to stay here JUST because they claim to seek asylum. They never seem to acknowledge that only a fraction of asylum seekers are granted it.
We know its a ploy, but try to convince those with their heads in the sand.
How much was that 'negotiated agreement' cost the US Sean?
You tell me. and then tell me the long and short term costs of our current policy.
although it's amusing to see the humanitarian crises biden created by asking aliens to surge the border defended on cost terms. Putting kids in cages is worth saving a few pennies, huh?
Q: How much do illegal aliens cost us each and every year?
A: Way too much.
That's a pretty cold opinion you have there Sean.
Don't be disingenuous.
You brought the cost of Trump's agreements to keep kids out of cages at the border up, not me.
That's YOU being disingenuous.
Trump's agreements weren't about keeping kids out of cages at the border Sean. They WERE about returning unaccompanied minors from Mexico who were seeking asylum back to Mexico until their hearings.
Trump VIOLATED the agreement with Mexico by dumping non-Mexican kids in Mexico. That fact has been reported since early 2020.