Immigration
Biden Admin Again Pushes For End Of ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy
DHS Secretary Mayorkas admits that MPP ‘likely’ contributed to reduced illegal immigration
As the crisis at the border continues, the Biden administration is pushing again to end the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required migrants at the southern border to stay in Mexico as they wait for their asylum cases to be heard.
“After carefully considering the arguments, evidence, and perspectives presented by those who support re-implementation of MPP, those who support terminating the program, and those who have argued for continuing MPP in a modified form, I have determined that MPP should be terminated,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a Friday memo.
“In reaching this conclusion, I recognize that MPP likely contributed to reduced migratory flows. But it did so by imposing substantial and unjustifiable human costs on the individuals who were exposed to harm while waiting in Mexico,” he wrote, adding that the policy “fails to provide the fair process and humanitarian protections that all persons deserve.”
Mayorkas’ announcement of the decision to end a policy that self-admittedly reduced illegal immigration comes weeks after reports that the Biden administration was expecting a potential surge of up to 400,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in October – nearly double the 21-year record broken in July when over 210,000 migrants illegally crossed the southern border.
Earlier this month, Mayorkas also directed authorities to focus on only deporting illegal immigrants who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security.”
“The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen, therefore, should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” Mayorkas wrote in a memo. “We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country’s well-being require it.”
Mayorkas outlined “mitigating factors” that would prevent the deportation of an illegal immigrant who had committed a crime, including: “advanced or tender age; lengthy presence in the United States; a mental condition that may have contributed to the criminal conduct, or a physical or mental condition requiring care or treatment.”
Immigration
IG Audit shows nonprofit wasted $17 million taxpayer dollars on hotels to not house illegal foreign nationals
An audit report by the Inspector General shows enraging information as to exactly how millions of dollars from the American people were completely wasted.
One doesn’t need to read past the IG report’s headline to become furious: “ICE Spent Funds on Unused Beds, Missed COVID-19 Protocols and Detention Standards while Housing Migrant Families in Hotels.”
In summary, an unbelievable $17 million was wasted on not housing illegal foreign nationals. At the heart of the story is Endeavors, a nonprofit which has received half a billion dollars in taxpayer money “through no-bid government contracts to house foreign nationals who illegally entered the U.S. and were released by the Biden administration instead of being deported” reports The Center Square.
The audit evaluated the process used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to grant no bid contracts to Endeavors and their compliance with federal law, the article explains.
The report evaluated an $86.9 million sole source contract first awarded to Endeavors earlier this year. The contract was awarded for six months to provide “temporary shelter and processing services for families who have not been expelled and are therefore placed in immigration proceedings for their removal from the United States,” The Center Square previously reported.
Months after it received its first no bid contract, Endeavors received a second $530 million contract and hired former Biden administration official Andrew Lorenzen-Straight as its senior director for migrant services and federal affairs, Axios reported.
The Center Square explains:
Sole source contracts are used when an agency can demonstrate the contract meets specific and justified criteria. If contracts don’t meet one of the criteria, they must be awarded through an open competitive process.
Endeavors has no professional history of providing housing services and has never provided beds or all-inclusive emergency family residential services, OIG auditors found. Those critical of DHS’ contract process argue the agency should be awarding contracts through an open competitive process to ensure that those bidding for funds can offer the services they claim they can provide.
Under the contract in question, for six months between March and September 2021, Endeavors was responsible for providing 1,239 beds and other necessary services in hotels. It used six hotels and repurposed them as Emergency Family Reception Sites to accommodate families staying less than three days while ICE considered conditions of release, including alternatives to detention.
The IOG made four recommendations for ICE to improve its contracting and oversight of hotel facility management and operations. “ICE concurred with one recommendation and didn’t concur with three. Based on information ICE provided in its response, the IOG said it considered one recommendation resolved and closed, and three recommendations administratively closed.”
-
National Security6 days agoWhistleblower: FBI manipulating cases to create ‘illusion’ of domestic violent extremism
-
Podcast5 days agoFmr. CIA Station Chief: ‘We’re Under Siege’ on Multiple Fronts
-
Nation5 days agoDriver free on bond after he admittedly killed teenager for Conservative views
-
Immigration7 days agoIllegal migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard on ‘voluntary basis’ and ‘signed wavers’ file lawsuit against DeSantis, others
