The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ramped up grants for migrants from 2020 to 2024 — which included cash assistance to buy cars, homes and even build credit for startup businesses, according to a shocking watchdog report that found taxpayers were left on the hook for $22.6 billion.
HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — which came under fire last year for having lost track of 32,000 migrant kids in the US — handed out the high sum to a host of nonprofits, effectively acting as a “giant magnet” for those crossing the US border and claiming asylum, auditors from the money monitor OpenTheBooks revealed exclusively to The Post.
Tasked with settling migrants, asylum seekers and other refugees in America, ORR drastically increased the number of noncitizens eligible to receive funding over the bulk of President Joe Biden’s term, with more than $10 billion shelled out to grant-receiving organizations just in fiscal year 2023.
That coincided with all-time records being set for southern border crossings into the US, with 2.4 million apprehensions by Customs and Border Protection over the same period.
Non-governmental groups bilked taxpayers for up to $1.7 billion in services including dollar-for-dollar matching savings plans for cars, homes, college educations or startups; small-business loans of up to $15,000; loans to repair credit history of up to $1,500; “cultural orientation,” “emergency housing support,” legal assistance and Medicaid care.
Some programs were only available to migrants or refugees who had been living in the US for several years, who were employed or who were making around double the federal poverty level or less, among other stipulations.
The most funding, however, was spent on unaccompanied migrant children, with $12.4 billion obligated over the five years — even as federal whistleblowers were calling out ORR for placing many of the 291,000 kids in their care with unvetted and at times abusive sponsors.
“The Shining City on a Hill, with its walls and doors, makes room for legal immigrants and legitimate refugees and asylum seekers, but the ORR has made a mockery of that vision in recent years,” OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart told The Post.
“ORR is part of a troubling trend of using nonprofit groups as ideological proxies. Vast sums are being outsourced to evade accountability and prop up an immoral, exploitive system that is hurtful to both American citizens and people in other countries who are longing for a better life.”
Thursday’s report comes after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came under fire for sending around $80 million — subsequently clawed back by the Trump administration Tuesday — to put migrants up in New York City hotels and provide other services.
More than $2.6 billion went out the door in fiscal year 2020, $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2021, $3.3 billion in fiscal year 2022, $10 billion in fiscal year 2023 and $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. The funding tranches were obligated spending, meaning not all the money has been disbursed so far.
Migrants from Cuba and Haiti, humanitarian parolees from Afghanistan and Ukraine, special immigrant visa holders from Afghanistan and Iraq and unaccompanied minors from abroad were all eligible for grant programs.
The watchdog group pointed out that the windfall came as ORR was expanding access to legal counsel for migrants and eliminating the need for other noncitizens, like refugees, to become economically self-sufficient “as quickly as possible.”
Two of the top groups receiving funds in the last four fiscal years were Church World Services, which opposed a joint agreement between Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau closing an asylum loophole on the northern border, and the International Rescue Committee.
Since 2020, the former has netted $355 million in grants, while the latter received $598 million, according to the OpenTheBooks report.
Robin Dunn Marcos, the senior HHS official who oversaw the ORR program for solo child migrants during some of that period, had previously worked for more than 30 years combined at both nonprofits.
In June 2023, Dunn Marcos testified to House lawmakers that her office was not even conducting criminal background checks on juveniles as part of the program that let in hundreds of thousands of migrant kids and became among the most costly for ORR.
Then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had pushed his staff to release migrant children to sponsors as quickly as possible, likening the ideal turnover rate to an “assembly line,” the New York Times previously reported.
Hart slammed ORR’s treatment of migrant kids and said it had revealed “the Left’s counterfeit compassion around immigration.”
“Losing track of 300,000 children violates their dignity and puts them at risk,” he said.
In its report, OpenTheBooks claimed Dunn Marcos’ past work for nonprofits receiving ORR grants posed a “conflict of interest.”
Reps for Dunn Marcos’ office said in a statement that after being appointed in September 2022, she had recused herself from approving funding for any past employer.
OpenTheBooks nevertheless submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to ORR’s parent office, the Administration for Children and Families, where Dunn Marcos served until recently. Email bouncebacks, the group noted, suggest she departed government service after President Trump took office Jan. 20.
“While Dunn Marcos may have disappeared from ORR, our questions remain over whether certain nonprofit organizations received special treatment amid the billions in grants furnished by the government office,” the group’s report concludes.
“What’s clear is that ORR has funded a constellation of NGOs deployed in border states and nationwide, who give out aid designed to attract even more migrants.”
Reps for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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