According to a recent House Homeland Security Committee report, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is personally liable for the “waste and abuse” of public funds in managing the southern border crisis.
Mayorkas has presided over enormous waste and overspending on the part of the American people as a result of her decisions to house illegal immigrants in hotel rooms rather than in ICE facilities, which were funded with taxpayer dollars. He has also canceled the border wall construction that former President Trump had planned.
The inquiry against Mayorkas, initiated in June by Committee Chairman Mark Green, has now concluded with the release of this report.
According to the report, in its budget proposal to Congress for fiscal year 2024, ICE estimated that each bed would cost $142.44 or less. A much more expensive option was made by the Biden administration, which included contracting corporations to assist with housing illegal migrants in hotels. A contract to shelter families of illegal migrants at hotels costing $392 per night was won by the government, totaling around $86 million. A report from the inspector general’s office was released in April 2022, stating that ICE had wasted almost $17 million on six hotels that were mostly unoccupied from April to June of 2021 and that the single source contract for housing migrant families was not sufficiently justified.
In addition, the committee’s investigation revealed that states are bearing the majority of the expenses associated with hosting illegal migrants, a burden that DHS is “purposefully shifting” onto counties.
Daily, housing each family in New York City costs over $339, while individuals pay around $184. “Consistent waste and abuse of taxpayer resources allowed by Mayorkas, notably by his refusal to detain illegal immigrants and employ Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention resources in line with their stated purpose,” reads the final interim report.
