A group of House Republicans is calling out the taxpayer-funded contractors who resettle refugees across the United States every year for the federal government, stating that they have a “vested financial interest” in the process.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) and other House Republicans are seeking details about the State Department’s “Refugee Travel Loans” where American taxpayers foot the bill for loans to newly arrived refugees to the U.S. with the promise that they will be paid back in full.
The loans are funneled through the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) before they make their way to refugees.
The Republicans write that “it is important taxpayer funds are being used responsibly and the State Department is making every effort to collect on the loans within a reasonable amount of time” when data “from 1952 to 2002 [shows that] the IOM issued $1,020,803,910 in ‘transportation’ loans and recovered only $584, 219,453.”
“We are also concerned with a possible conflict of interest among resettlement agencies operating as debt collectors,” the Republicans write:
While some of these organizations claim the United States has a moral obligation to resettle thousands of refugees every year, the organizations making this claim have a vested financial interest. [Emphasis added]
There is a severe lack of transparency surrounding Refugee Travel Loans and we request the following information to ensure proper oversight of taxpayer funds. [Emphasis added]
“President Biden is funneling taxpayer dollars through the United Nations to provide a slush fund to his supporters and it’s time for transparency,” Gooden said in a statement. “While these liberal non-profits claim the U.S. has a moral obligation to resettle thousands of refugees a year, the truth is they are making millions off U.S. taxpayers in the process.”
Along with Gooden, Reps. Randy Weber (R-TX), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Brian Babin (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), and Chip Roy (R-TX) signed the letter.
Annually, the federal government funnels millions in taxpayer money to nine refugee contractors who resettle most of the nation’s booming refugee population. The contractors routinely lobby lawmakers to increase the number of refugees resettled in the U.S. as their annual budgets rely on a steady flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Those contractors are:
Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).
President Joe Biden’s most prominent refugee operation — a massive resettlement of Afghans that seeks to bring at least 95,000 Afghans to the U.S. by the end of this year — has already resettled more than 40,000 Afghans since mid-August 2021.
As Breitbart News has reported, many Afghans are offered free housing, food stamps, job training, as well as $2,300 checks.
Last month, a group of Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to give Biden an additional $7 billion to fund the resettlement operation with no end date or numerical limit for when the U.S. will halt resettling Afghans. The total amount that American taxpayers are now spending on the operation exceeds $13 billion.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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