The Department of Health and Human Services spent $22.6 billion on assistance to illegal immigrants from 2020 to 2024 as border crossings hit all-time highs, a new watchdog report shows.
The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, a unit that lost track of 32,000 migrant children, distributed the bulk of the funds to nonprofit organizations during President Joe Biden’s term, according to a report from government spending watchdog Open the Books, first reported by the New York Post.
In fiscal year 2023 alone, the ORR doled out $10 billion worth of grants as the Biden administration expanded the number of illegal aliens eligible for assistance. HHS distributed obligated funds of $2.6 billion in 2020, $2.3 billion in 2021, and $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. Over that time period, the Biden administration allowed record numbers of illegal immigrants to cross the southern border and remain in the country.
Some of the ORR money went towards a program that helped illegal immigrants save for car and home purchases, while another program distributed business and personal loans to help migrants build credit. Additional funds were allocated toward providing migrants with “legal assistance,” “cultural orientation,” and “emergency housing support.”
“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,” Open The Books CEO John Hart told the Post.
The bulk of HHS’s funding, $12.6 billion, went towards resettling migrants, despite allegations that ORR lost track of tens of thousands of children and placed many more into abusive situations. Last year, the House Judiciary Committee released a report showing that HHS refugee resettlement director Robin Dunn Marcos admitted to not conducting background checks on migrant refugees to see if they had criminal records.
Eligibility for ORR grant programs was extended to various groups of illegal aliens including humanitarian parolees from Afghanistan and Ukraine, unaccompanied minors, and special visa holders from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Open The Books’s report on HHS spending follows the Department of Homeland Security’s swift action to claw back at least $59 million the Federal Emergency Management Administration spent on housing illegal immigrants in New York City. DHS reclaimed the funding after firing four FEMA staffers for making the unauthorized payment once billionaire Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, shined light on it.
President Donald Trump’s pick to run HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate earlier Thursday with all Democrats and Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) opposing him. Kennedy recently hired Chris Clem, a former border patrol chief, as a senior advisor to handle immigration policy and refugee resettlement at HHS, Politico reported.
The Trump administration is already carrying out mass deportations of illegal immigrants and Kennedy’s HHS could further that effort in coordination with the DHS.