Local law enforcement shouldering the burden of illegal immigration
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis addresses the border crisis: 'it's not just a humanitarian crisis, but it's also a national security crisis'
The Biden administration has pulled more than $2 billion out of programs authorized by Congress for COVID-19 testing, emergency medical supplies and other health needs — and is spending it on shelter for the 45,000 unaccompanied migrant children that have flooded across the US border this year.
The Department of Health and Human Services siphoned $850 million out of funds allocated for testing in President Biden’s massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Politico reported Saturday.
Secretary Xavier Becerra pulled $850 million more out of a fund meant to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile of items like medical gloves, masks, antibiotics and ventilators, and yanked $436 million out of other health programs, according to HHS spokesman Mark Weber.
DHS CHIEF MAYORKAS SAYS HUNDREDS OF MIGRANT KIDS STILL COMING IN DAILY
(Michael Reynolds-Pool / REUTERS/Adrees Latif / Getty Images)
Such transfers are legal, as long as Congress is notified.
In all, $2.13 billion have been poured into emergency shelters near the US-Mexico border, where kids have been crammed into jail-like "pods" that allow for no social distancing.
BIDEN ROLLS BACK TRUMP ORDER BARRING IMMIGRANTS WHO CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH CARE
The report came just days after Becerra appeared before a congressional committee to plead for another $905 million to be pumped into the pandemic-depleted stockpile.
The news of the cash diversion had Republicans — who have blamed the spiraling border crisis on Biden’s executive orders rolling back President Trump’s strict immigration policies — fuming.
"The President single-handedly created this crisis and is now misplacing billions in taxpayers’ money," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told The Post.
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"The answer to every problem is not to throw money at it," said Malliotakis, who excoriated Biden after visiting the border in April. "In this case, it’s simply rescinding his executive order, reinstating President Trump’s border protocols, and going after the cartels and smugglers."
In recent weeks, a Texas nonprofit won two HHS no-bid contracts totaling nearly $620 million to provide "emergency intake" services for migrant children shortly after hiring a former Biden aide.
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