The Biden administration has awarded an $86 million contract to a Texas nonprofit organization to house over a thousand migrants in hotel rooms.
The nonprofit organization Endeavors confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the Department of Homeland Security “has contracted with Endeavors to provide critical services to migrant families.” The contract will reportedly last for six months, and funds will be used to house 1,200 migrant family members.
The contracts come after border officials warned that an unprecedented number of children, 117,000, will arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. Eighty thousand unaccompanied minors arrived during the 2019 crisis on the southwestern border.
Endeavors has been awarded $178,100,000 from the federal government since 2011, with this most recent contract to house migrants making up their largest contract to date.
More than 14,000 migrant children were in the custody of either Customs and Border Protection or the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.
In January, the Biden administration changed the policy of its predecessor by stopping the return of unaccompanied minors to Mexico, which was instituted as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Customs and Border Protection and Health and Human Services have opened several facilities in Texas to house the minors, including one that critics said was holding “kids in cages” during the Trump administration.
The administration will also allow border officials to fly migrant families and children to facilities along the northern border. Republican Rep. Lisa McClain said the plan was “deeply troubling,” raising concerns about the spread of COVID-19.
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“We already know these illegal aliens are not being tested for the coronavirus before being released into Texas communities. We cannot let this happen in Michigan,” McClain said.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment at the time of publication.
