Biden administration’s $87 million contract to house illegal immigrants in hotels to be investigated
Thomas McDonald
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An independent auditor with The Department of Homeland Security will investigate the Biden administration’s decision to award an $87 million contract to house illegal aliens in hotel rooms.
“The decision to award a massive, no-bid contract to the nonprofit Endeavors raised many questions, including how an organization with no experience working with ICE could win a non-compete contract,” House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Republican John Katko said. “It’s bad enough that this administration has created a self-inflicted border crisis. Its response should now be focused on reversing the misguided policies that got us here — not engaging in activity that raises significant ethical questions.”
The DHS Office of the Inspector General will investigate how Endeavors, a Texas-based non-profit, was awarded the federal contract by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following reports that the group had potential conflicts of interest, including the groups senior director previously working on President Joe Biden’s transition team.
The contract given to Endeavors was signed in March and gave the group $352.64 per hotel bed per day to house 80,000 illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border. Exactly 1,239 beds at seven hotels throughout Texas and Arizona were rented for more than six months. The government labels the hotels as “emergency family reception sites” where the illegal immigrants could be held for up to three days before being released into the general public, mandating that they appear in immigration court.
Andrew Lorenzen-Strait is a former senior official on the Biden transition team working on the Department of Homeland Security policy team and is currently an executive at Endeavors. On Inauguration Day, Lorenzen-Strait was hired by Endeavors as its senior director for migrant services and federal affairs.
ICE did not follow the normal competitive process for awarding contracts, and the government did not solicit bids from other organizations before handing out the $87 million contract to Endeavors. ICE said the situation at the southern border called for “unusual and compelling urgency,” so they didn’t follow the normal process.
After getting the $87 million contract, Lorenzen-Strait made posts to his personal social media accounts soliciting public donations to cover the costs of flying illegal immigrants to and from the hotels.
“Friends and family — My Endeavors team is on the front lines along the SW border, helping asylum-seeking families and unaccompanied children. We need your help to secure onward travel arrangements for our families staying in our shelters. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (Post is shareable) #charity,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.