The Biden administration is spending $86 million in taxpayer funds on a new contract for hotel rooms to house roughly 1,200 illegal immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border as the surge of migrants continues, according to DHS officials, Axios reported on Saturday.
Executed through the Texas-based nonprofit Endeavors, the contract covers a six-month period but could be extended and increased. Axios reported that the hotels will be near the border in at least Arizona and Texas.
President Joe Biden’s administration is considering multiple measures to handle the influx of illegal immigrants that topped 100,000 in February alone.
Over the weekend, The Washington Post reported that officials requested airplanes to transport illegal immigrants to states near the Canadian border for processing, according to multiple Department of Homeland Security officials and an email obtained by the Post.
The correspondence showed the request for air support was made after 1,000 members of families and unaccompanied minors crossed the Rio Grande Friday morning.
The air transport approach is the latest attempt by the Biden administration to combat the worsening so-called “challenge” at the border – administration officials have repeatedly refused to refer to the situation as a crisis.
Last week, CBS News revealed the number of unaccompanied children being held in Customs and Border Patrol detention facilities was over 300 percent more than previously known.
CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell said the crisis at the borer is “growing larger and more dire by the day.”
“Tonight, we have got the stunning new numbers,” O’Donnell said. “Sources tell CBS News more than 13,000 migrant children who entered the country without their parents are now in U.S. custody. The government says even more adults are being turned back every day.”
Over the weekend, an illegal immigrant told ABC News that he unlawfully crossed the border into the United States because Joe Biden is president, noting that he would not have attempted the journey if Donald Trump still held office.
When ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked the illegal immigrant father – who traveled from Brazil with his wife and three children – if he would have tried crossing the border when Trump was president, the man responded, “Definitely not.”
“We used to watch the news and I definitely wouldn’t do this [if Trump was president],” the man continued.
“So, did you come here because Joe Biden was elected president?” Raddatz asked.
“Basically,” the illegal immigrant said. “The main thing was the violence in my country. And the second thing, I think, was Joe Biden.”
