The Biden administration spent tens of billions of dollars on grants to migrants and refugees through one of its government agencies, including over $10 billion in just one year, according to a new watchdog report.
The watchdog group Open the Books looked at grants to nonprofits awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. Its responsibilities include caring for unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the southern border illegally and refugees entering legally.
The watchdog found that in FY 2021, it distributed $2.4 billion in grants to nonprofits. In FY 2022, it distributed $3.4 billion, then that number skyrocketed up to $10 billion in FY 2023 before being reduced to $4.2 billion in FY 2024.
The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024.
According to the watchdog, the money included spending to help migrants save for car and home purchases, while another gave out business and personal loans, along with other programs for legal aid and cultural orientation.
“We’re hurting American taxpayers. People in places like North Carolina, Los Angeles that have lost everything,” Open the Books CEO John Hart told Fox News. “How is it moral to ask them to pay the bill for someone who wants to come to this country illegally? That’s outrageous.”
The revelation comes amid a government-wide scrutiny of funding, including funding for migrants, by the Trump administration and led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that it had taken back $59 million in FEMA funds earmarked for hotels housing migrants in New York City and had fired four FEMA employees involved in the payments being distributed.
“There will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been ramping up border security and cracking down on releases into the interior. It has suspended refugee resettlement, taken off limits imposed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and declared a national emergency at the southern border.
