(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) House Republicans announced last week another investigation into the Biden administration after an official claimed he helped non-profit organizations make shady backroom deals with federal agencies to house migrants.
The official, Biden transition team member Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, also claimed the migrant crisis caused a “boom for business,” according to a video recorded by Project Veritas.
“The alarming allegations of Mr. [Andrew] Lorenzen-Strait’s corruption and his recently recorded statements only further justify the Homeland Security Committee’s continued oversight of ICE’s suspect contract procurement processes,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn, in reaction to the video.
“Awarding massive, sole-source contracts for illegal immigrant services to ill-equipped non-profits such as Endeavors, possibly because of connections to President Biden’s 2020 transition team, could prove to be an unacceptable abuse of taxpayer funds, and ICE must answer for these allegations.”
Lorenzen-Strait’s $87 million deal with Endeavors, an organization that housed immigrants at hotels instead of government-owned family residential centers, faced investigations from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Inspector General’s office discovered that the contract was unjustified and Endeavors took $17 million to line their own pockets.
Lorenzen-Strait was also busted for another attempted deal with Cherokee Federal, the government contracting arm of the Cherokee Nation. In the video, Lorenzen-Strait claimed he helped the Cherokee Nation “move into the migration or refugee space” in order to make money.
“[Lorenzen-Strait] further discussed ‘brokering’ a deal that won Cherokee Federal… a nearly $2 billion contract with the federal government to provide services to unaccompanied alien children,” said the investigators in a letter to ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner.
“Despite clear conflicts of interest and prior scrutiny, Mr. Lorenzen-Strait may be influencing ICE’s contracts for migrant services with non-governmental and non-profit organizations.”
This new investigation is one of many the committee has in progress, which is also performing a series of six hearings looking into DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s job performance.
