House Republicans will now investigate claims from a Biden official after he reportedly said he made backroom deals with federal agencies, calling the migrant crisis a “boom for business.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) told the Washington Examiner:
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. 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.
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) speaks during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 27, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Clay Higgins (R-LA) and Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) echoed Green’s call to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hand over communications about an $87 million deal to house migrants at the border in hotels instead of government-owned residential centers.
The issue surrounding the contract resurfaced last week after Project Veritas said reported that Biden transition official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait bragged about how he made backroom deals with federal agencies and called the migrant crisis a “boom for business.”
Andrew Lorenzen-Strait (Endeavors.org)
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General responded by launching an investigation into the $87 million deal with Endeavors. The inspector general’s office found that the contract was unjustified and Endeavors took $17 million of the funds it did not use.
The Examiner continued:
The inspector general also concluded that ICE had never put out a notice to contractors that it needed to rent space to house immigrant families. Endeavors sent ICE a proposal that stated it could house immigrants, an unusual offering given that ICE had not disclosed any need for housing.
Lorenzen-Strait’s prior work was a conflict of interest, the inspector general found, because he had crafted ICE policy as a transition team official while simultaneously advising Endeavors.
Lorenzen-Strait publicly signed on with Endeavors as a senior employee on Biden’s first day in office and shortly after locked down the $87 million backdoor deal and a $530 million noncompete contract to shelter unaccompanied immigrant children for the Department of Health and Human Services.
WATCH — Exclusive Video Shows MASSIVE CAMP of Illegal Immigrants Waiting to Cross U.S. Border:
John RourkeGreen, Higgins, and Bishop wrote to acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner, “Mr. Lorenzen-Strait referred to what appears to be the Endeavors contract as a ‘corrupt bargain.'”
“He further discussed ‘brokering’ a deal that won Cherokee Federal, a team of tribally owned federal contracting companies, a nearly $2 billion contract with the federal government to provide services to unaccompanied alien children,” they added.
“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,” the lawmakers added.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
