Blackburn questions ICE, DHS on Spending $86.9M on Hotels for Migrants
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tuesday over the
$86.9 million the agencies are spending to house more than 1,200 migrant families in hotel rooms.
The Biden administration, earlier this month, awarded ICE an
$86.9 million contract through Texas-based nonprofit Endeavors for hotel rooms
near the border to provide temporary shelter and processing services for families who have been expelled from the United States but have been placed in immigration proceedings for their removal.
But Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE acting Director Tae Johnson, is questioning the nonprofit's past financial disclosures, and how the new contract funds will be used.
Blackburn said that in 2018, Endeavors brought in "over $38 million in contributions and grants," and noted that "IRS filings show that nearly $22 million or almost half of those contributions went to salaries."
"As the current contract stands, the cost to taxpayers for housing 1,200 migrant families for six months is about $71,000 per person," Blackburn wrote. "For a family of four, that amounts to a shocking $284,000 — enough to buy a small house."
Blackburn questions ICE, DHS on spending $86.9M on hotels for migrants