President Joe Biden and his administration continue to fail to provide any meaningful roadmap describing how the massive surge of illegal immigrants at the southern U.S. border will eventually be mitigated or contained.
According to Fox News, House Republicans have identified another layer of the ongoing controversy, which focuses on how much the immigration crisis is costing the U.S. government and ultimately, the taxpaying American.
Who’s leading the charge?
Reps. Jason Smith (R-MO), and John Katko (R-NY) penned a joint letter this week to to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Shalanda Young which clarified their concerns with how much the escalating immigration crisis is costing this country.
The GOP lawmakers, who sit on the House Budget and Homeland Security committees — two committees that have reportedly had their funds tapped to deal with the rising cost in expenses related to the unprecedented number of illegal immigrants — and especially unaccompanied minors — that are crossing the border daily.
Smith and Katko made crystal clear in their letter to Young that they have valid concerns over the costs involved, saying as such in no uncertain terms.
“While it is evident that President Biden’s immigration policies have encouraged historic levels of migration to the border, exacerbating the national security, humanitarian, and public health crisis, what remains unclear is the true cost—both current and future—of responding to this policy-driven crisis,” the Republican lawmakers wrote.
Among a number of specific inquiries related to the presumably monumental expenses being incurred by the hour, the lawmakers also asked Young about the cancellation of the border wall project and the likelihood that legal fees and other costs will be associated with canceling contracts along with the wasted border wall materials.
Biden owes an “honest assessment”
The two Republicans included a list of specific expenses that the government is currently paying, with one being the reported $86 million to secure hotel rooms for illegal immigrants. Other items included transportation costs and some $60 million per week being shelled out for basic needs for the unaccompanied minors.
“Many of these adjusted costs were not budgeted or appropriated for, nor were they approved by Congress,” they wrote. “Additionally, these costs were not accounted for in the most recent budget outline submitted by the Biden Administration. What is even more disconcerting is the budget outline for the upcoming fiscal year calls for a freeze in funding for DHS.”
The two went on to stress the point that it’s not acceptable for an administration to begin juggling funds to pay for a disaster that was created by Biden’s aggressive approach to undoing all of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies that prevented this sort of crisis during his time in office.
“For months, President Biden and his Administration have tried to downplay the disaster while spending hundreds of millions on the response. Congress and the American people need to know what is being spent, where, and what more will be requested by the Administration as it contends with a crisis of its own creation,” Smith and Katko wrote.
They added that the Biden administration owes Americans an “honest assessment” of the true nature of the immigration crisis and its implications, though it’s unlikely that we’ll be receiving that anytime in the near future.
The post House Republicans demand to know how much immigration crisis is costing taxpayers first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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