#ABOLISHICE
ICE blew $17M on unused hotel rooms for migrants, DHS watchdog finds
Immigration officials wasted $17 million dollars on unused hotels for migrants last year, after hiring a politically connected contractor that failed to meet COVID-19 protocols, a government watchdog found.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered into the $87 million contract with the nonprofit company Endeavors to provide services for the surge of migrants at the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General said in a Tuesday report.
ICE should have sought multiple bids for the work, instead of signing onto the “sole source” deal with Endeavors, which required the agency to pay for a block of more than 1,200 hotel rooms, no matter how many were used, the watchdog found.
As a result of the alleged blunder, the government was contractually obligated to pay Endeavors $17 million for hotel rooms that were mostly empty between April and June of 2021, according to the report.
“ICE’s sole source contract with Endeavors resulted in millions of dollars being spent on unused hotel space,” it read.
Additionally, Endeavors put “migrant families and the outside population at risk of contracting COVID-19” by not following testing procedures before transporting migrants, officials alleged.
The Texas-based nonprofit also failed to provide snacks and storage areas for migrant families as required by ICE guidelines, the Office of Inspector General said. Spotty surveillance and document security at migrant facilities run by Endeavors was another concern, according to the report.
The alleged mismanagement came around the same time Endeavors entered into another, more lucrative no-bid contract with the US Department of Health and Human Services. The deal raised eyebrows because it was secured after the organization hired Biden administration transition team member Andrew Lorenzen-Strait as its senior director for migrant services and federal affairs.
ICE disagreed with much of the report and said it was justified in hastily entering the no-bid contract due to the “unusual and compelling urgency” of the migrant border crisis.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that non-citizens in its custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments, and under appropriate conditions of confinement,” an agency executive wrote in a March letter to DHS.
Endeavors said it “followed appropriate protocols and met the standard of care for migrant families in this contract,” in a statement to Fox News.
NY POST
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