(Daily Caller News Foundation) – House lawmakers are probing the role many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played in facilitating the illegal immigration crisis that rocked the country during the Biden administration.
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine how NGOs — nonprofit organizations that operate independently of the U.S. government — orchestrated and benefited from the historic southern border crisis and how some leftist organizations are still allegedly undermining federal immigration enforcement. At the center of the controversy is whether these NGOs used taxpayer dollars to promote illegal immigration.
“This committee led the way in impeaching Secretary Mayorkas for his willful and systemic refusal to enforce longstanding immigration laws — laws passed and amended over the years by bipartisan majorities in Congress,” Mississippi GOP Rep. Michael Guest, chairman of the Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee, is slated to say Wednesday, according to testimony obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“What is not known by many, and what will be highlighted today at this hearing, is that the Biden-Harris administration could not execute an open borders policy on its own,” Guest continues.” They needed help, and that help came from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded by the federal government.”
The Homeland Security Committee’s ongoing investigation follows an unprecedented border crisis. Fiscal years 2023 and 2024 were the worst and second-worst years, respectively, in nationwide migrant encounters, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
There were roughly 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border during the four fiscal years of the Biden-Harris administration, CBP data shows. An analysis by The New York Times found that Biden oversaw the greatest net migration in history, even surpassing the enormous migration booms experienced in the 1800s and early 1900s.
While President Donald Trump has achieved record-breaking success in restoring order to the U.S.-Mexico border, questions remain on how exactly the border crisis was fomented — and who paid the tab for it. GOP members of the House Homeland Committee say numerous NGOs got fat checks from the Biden administration while laying out the red carpet to waves of illegal migrants.
“These groups that received billions in taxpayer funding would prove instrumental in helping the Biden-Harris administration process and release a historic number of illegal aliens into our communities,” Guest is expected to say.
“Our taxpayer dollars were spent on purchasing tens of thousands of nights in hotel rooms for illegal aliens, instead of using existing ICE detention facilities to house those detained individuals,” Guest continues. “The Biden-Harris Administration sent taxpayer dollars to NGOs to put them in hotels at the cost of hundreds of dollars per night, often without any ICE supervision.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided grants to numerous NGOs through a program that later became known as the Shelter and Services Program, according to a Department of Homeland Security report. These NGOs, many of them operating at the southern border, spent billions of taxpayer dollars given to them by the Biden White House to provide an array of benefits to illegal migrants recently released from DHS custody, such as transportation and hotel stays.
The Homeland Security Committee has since been launching investigations into these groups.
In June, lawmakers sent letters to over 200 NGOs demanding information about their activity, while committee members are now poring over responsive documents. One of the recipients of these letters, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), has been linked to the anti-ICE riots that swept the Los Angeles area in June and individuals who allegedly attacked a Border Patrol vehicle.
In April, committee members sent a letter to the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) in response to undercover video footage of their seminars purportedly teaching audience members how to avoid immigration agents. In addition to U.S. federal funding, the CPC has also received donations from Chinese government-backed entities over the years, a DCNF investigation revealed.
“The United States of America is still reeling from the consequences of the worst border invasion in its history,” Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, is slated to say Wednesday.
“This was an invasion that was planned, promoted, encouraged, funded, and sustained by radical elements of the previous Administration,” Howell continues. “This invasion could not have been accomplished without a colossal ‘partnership’ between the government and open borders organizations.”
Ali Hopper, president and co-founder of GUARD Against Trafficking, and Julio Rosas of the Blaze are also expected to speak at the committee hearing.
