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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative group is suing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over documents associated to the housing and sheltering of illegal immigrants within the U.S. amid broader considerations about how taxpayer money is being spent on the disaster.
The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is suing HHS after it submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request looking for documents about HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and details about how money has been spent on non-governmental organizations that assist migrants.
The FOIA request sought documents “showing the total list of non-governmental organizations that received federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Refugee Resettlement for years FY 2023, and FY 2024 to assist with housing, educational, medical, legal, or other services made available to migrants apprehended at the Southern border.”
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Border Patrol picks up a bunch of asylum seekers from an support camp on the U.S.-Mexico border close to Sasabe, Ariz., March 13, 2024. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
The lawsuit says it’s within the public curiosity “because it will help the public understand whether HHS is using taxpayer dollars consistent with the law and whether appropriate oversight of federal funds provided to non-governmental organizations is in place.”
HHS didn’t reply to the FOIA, and so the group is suing to get the required documents.
“The southern border is out of control, and American communities are being forced to deal with thousands of unvetted migrants pouring over the border each day. ” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick stated in a press release.
“The American people are entitled to know specifically how much money taxpayers are spending on non-profit organizations providing social services to illegal migrants. CASA’s FOIA requested this information, and now this lawsuit will force the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide it for FY 23 and 24 just as they have provided it before.”
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While the Department of Homeland Security is the first company dealing with the migrant disaster and the inflow of migrants throughout the southern border, HHS performs a job, significantly within the resettlement of migrant kids who come throughout into the U.S. unaccompanied by an grownup.
More than 500,000 unaccompanied alien kids (UAC) have crossed the border with no mum or dad or guardian since 2021. When unaccompanied kids come to the border, they’re turned over by Border Patrol to Health and Human Services (HHS), which is able to try to search out them a sponsor inside the nation, sometimes a member of the family.
Lawmakers have repeatedly been scrutinizing the money going to nonprofits that resettle migrants, and a few Republicans see such spending as a misuse of taxpayer money.
Migrants wait in line to enter a shelter as others look ahead to an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, May 23, 2023. (Christian Torres Chavez/Anadolu Agency through Getty Images)
HHS, in the meantime, has been beneath specific scrutiny over its dealing with of resettling migrant kids, and Republican lawmakers just lately criticized HHS for “rushing” them out of custody and into the fingers of sponsors.
A September letter to the White House from Republicans in each chambers claimed the administration has in the reduction of on background checks and vetting procedures as a part of an effort to hurry up the method. The White House, nevertheless, pushed again on the claims.
“The administration has taken action to protect unaccompanied children through exacting sponsor vetting for those caring for unaccompanied children and post-release services for all children in sponsor care,” a White House spokesperson stated.
“HHS is also implementing the strongest rule to protect unaccompanied children ever through the Foundational Rule on Unaccompanied Children, which further implements detailed policies and procedures providing for the safe and timely release of unaccompanied children to vetted and approved sponsors, requiring background and criminal records checks for all sponsors and adults residing in the potential sponsor’s household, strengthened post-release services to ensure child well-being and immigration compliance and enhanced standards for private care facilities that house unaccompanied children.
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“It is outrageous that Republican members of Congress try to finish these protections for kids by means of use of the Congressional Review Act to repeal this vital rule.”
HHS came under the spotlight last year when The New York Times reported on how the agency had been unable to reach 85,000 minors and lost immediate contact with a third of them.
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HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated at the moment that the quantity “doesn’t sound in any respect to be sensible,” and “what we do is we try to observe up as finest we will with these youngsters.
“Congress has given us certain authorities. Our authorities end when we have found a suitable sponsor to place that child with. We try and do some follow-up, but neither the child nor the sponsor is actually obligated to follow up with us.”
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