DHS Watchdog Finds: ICE blew $17M on unused hotel rooms for migrants; ICE spent $17M of no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused

AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File

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. --->READ MORE HERE

AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File

ICE spent $17M of no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused: DHS watchdog

ICE has claimed it was justified in using a no-bid contract due to the urgency of the situation

The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent $17 million of a no-bid contract to house migrants in hotels that went largely unused between April and June last year and that a contractor failed to meet ICE standards.

The DHS Office of Inspector General reviewed ICE’s plans for migrant families crossing the southern border as the numbers surged early last year and how the contract was awarded.

ICE entered into an $86.9 million "sole source" contract with a company called Endeavors, rather than through a competitive bidding process. For six months, Endeavors would provide 1,239 beds and other services to migrants after ICE recognized its current family residential centers would be insufficient to house the number of migrants crossing the border.

Endeavors, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, separately entered into a no-bid contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for more than $500 million. The contracts were controversial because Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who also served as a Biden transition advisor on Homeland Security issues is on the company’s board. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow link below to a related story:

New IG Report Reveals Biden Regime Wasted $17 Million on UNUSED Hotel Rooms Meant for Illegals and ICE Contractors

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