The U.S. government spends
billions of dollars to “resettle” foreign nationals and transparency on how the
money is spent depends on the agency involved. Judicial Watch has been
investigating it for years, specifically the huge amount of taxpayer dollars that
go to “voluntary agencies”, known as VOLAGs, to provide a wide range of
services for the new arrivals. Throughout the ongoing probe Judicial Watch has
found a striking difference on how government lawyers use an exemption,
officially known as (b)(4), to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to
withhold records. All the cases involve public funds being used to resettle
foreigners on U.S. soil and Americans should be entitled to the records.
The (b)(4)
exemption permits agencies to withhold trade secrets and commercial or
financial information obtained from a person which is privileged or
confidential. Depending on the government agency and the mood of the
taxpayer-funded lawyers handling public records requests, that information is
exempt from disclosure. In these cases, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) disclosed a VOLAG contract to resettle tens of thousands of
Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) that entered the U.S. through Mexico under
the Obama administration while the State Department withheld large portions of
a one-year, $22.8 million deal to resettle refugees from Muslim countries. Most
of the UACs came from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and the Obama
administration blamed the sudden surge on violence in the three central American
nations. The agency responsible for resettling the minors and issuing contracts
for the costly services is HHS.
As a result
of Judicial Watch’s work HHS furnished records with
virtually nothing redacted. Disclosed were employee salaries of VOLAGs
contracted by the agency to provide services for the illegal immigrant minors,
the cost of laptops, big screen TVs, food, pregnancy tests, “multicultural
crayons” and shower stalls for the new arrivals. The general contract was to
provide “basic shelter care” for 2,400 minors for a period of four months in
2014. This cost American taxpayers an astounding $182,129,786 and the VOLAG
contracted to do it was government regular called Baptist Children and Family
Services (BCFS). The breakdown includes charges of $104,215,608 for UACs at
Fort Sill, Oklahoma and an additional $77,914,178 for UACs at Lackland Air
Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
HHS
rightfully provided all sorts of details in the records, including the cost of
emergency surge beds ($104,215,608) for just four months; food for the illegal
alien minors and staff ($18,198,000); medical supplies such as first aid kits,
latex gloves, lice shampoo and pregnancy tests ($1,120,400); recreation items
such as board games, soccer balls and jump ropes ($180,000); educational items
like art paper and multicultural crayons ($180,000); laptops ($200,000) and
cellphones ($160,000). Hotel accommodations for the BCFS staff was $6,765,000,
the records show, and the salary for a 30-member “Incident Management Team” was
$2,648,800, which breaks down to $88,293 per IMT member for the four-month
period. It was outrageous that the Obama administration spent nearly $200
million of taxpayer funds to provide illegal alien children with the types of
extravagant high-tech equipment and lavish benefits many American families
cannot even afford for their own children.
This has
become a heated issue for the government which may explain why other agencies
aren’t as forthcoming in providing specific figures, thus abusing the (b)(4)
exemption. The State Department, for instance, redacted huge portions of
records involving contracts with VOLAGs to resettle refugees from mostly Muslim
countries. The files illustrate the disparate redaction treatment given by
different government agencies to the same types of records. The State
Department paid a VOLAG called United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB) a ghastly $22,838,173 in one
year to resettle refugees that came mostly from Muslim countries. Unlike
HHS, the agency redacted information related to what the USCCB charged the
government for things like furniture, personnel, equipment and other costs
associated with contracts to resettle refugees. Why did one government agency
hand over the same types of records that another agency claims are trade
secrets? Judicial Watch is challenging the State Department’s (b)(4) exemption
and will provide updates as they become available.
HHS and the
State Department work with nine VOLAGs to resettle refugees and the voluntary
agencies have hundreds of contractors they like to call “affiliates.” It’s a
huge racket that costs American taxpayers monstrous sums and Judicial Watch is
working to pinpoint the exact amount. Besides BCFS and USCCB, other VOLAGs with
lucrative government gigs to resettle refugees are: Church World Service,
Ethiopian Community Development Council, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society, International Rescue Committee, U.S. Committee for
Refugees and Immigrants, Lutheran Immigration Refugee Services and World Relief
Corporation.
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