Biden Admin To Put 80,000 Migrants In Hotels At $352 Per Bed Per Night
April 14, 2021 By Gabe Kaminsky
thefederalist.com
The White House is spending close to $352 a night to provide beds to the estimated 80,000 migrant families expected to flood the border from now until September, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement document obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The contract rents out hotels in Texas and Arizona for six and a half months — 199 days. In these hotels, 1,239 beds will be occupied by those participating in the border surge, which the government dubs “emergency family reception sites.” After three days of sleeping in the hotel, migrant families who entered the country illegally will then be freed into the United States with a court date to be determined.
The initiative is part of an approximately $87 million contract ICE awarded to Family Endeavors, a San Antonio, Texas non-profit that has a former senior official on the Biden transition team, Andrew Lorenzen-Strait. No bids were solicited for the contract.
“In terms of solving the problem, it’s like roasting marshmallows at the scene of the fire,” James Carafano, a national security scholar at The Heritage Foundation told The Federalist. “All that money will do nothing to bring the border under control. You’re burning through an enormous amount of cash, which facilitates more illegal immigration …The potential risk of COVID adds to costs. The cartels are profiting off this to buy fentanyl.”
A month ago, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tweeted that Biden is “spending around $395 a night per room” on illegal migrants instead of returning them to their home countries. She was ridiculed, but her estimate based on early figures from the contract was an accurate ballpark range.
“So Biden is spending $86,000,000 to purchase hotel rooms for 1,200 illegal alien families for six months,” Boebert tweeted. “By that math, he’s spending around $395 a night per room. How many of you have stayed in a $395/night hotel room?”
While the hotels carry a price tag of $352 a night for the Biden administration — and thus the American taxpayer — two of the hotels being used in El Paso, Texas can be booked at this present time for a price ranging from $91 to $179.
An ICE spokeswoman told the Examiner the $87 million includes “transportation of the families from the Border Patrol stations that they are initially held at after being apprehended on the border to the hotels, as well as any emergency transportation from the hotel to medical facilities like hospitals and rides to airports or bus stations for families to travel to their final destinations nationwide.” Illegals will have all meals covered, in addition to complementary medical treatment, “recreational activities,” and laundry.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Federalist.
Even though the border crisis deepens, Biden has not participated in any immigration-related events in the past two weeks. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tapped by the president to examine the “root causes” of the crisis, has not even visited the border yet. The only activities she has participated in have been a phone call on April 7 with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and a March 30 call with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.
“I’d say the vice president, if she’s actually addressing this issue, needs to do both, needs to go to the border, needs to understand the conditions that are being experienced, needs to understand and talk to the men and women of the Border Patrol, she needs to hear firsthand what they’re experiencing, because it’s all interrelated,” former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said at a press conference sponsored by The Heritage Foundation.
The Biden administration is fine raising taxes on Americans, keeping their businesses and lives shut down indefinitely, and cramming through executive orders that strip jobs away — like canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline — while giving illegal aliens free rides.
Gabe Kaminsky is an intern at The Federalist and a student at the University of Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in Fox News, the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Conservative, RealClearPolitics, the Washington Examiner, and other outlets. Follow him on Twitter @Gabe__Kaminsky or email gkaminskycontact@gmail.com. |
