Biden Admin Spending Billions on Programs to Aid Illegal Immigrants Amid Border Crisis: Watchdog

Ethics concerns about agency’s leadership now added to previous controversy over Office of Refugee Resettlement losing track of 85,000 unaccompanied minors.

More than 1,000 unvetted immigrants wait in line near a U.S. Border Patrol field processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Expenditures on one of the most controversial federal programs aiding the millions of illegal immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan, Cuba, and Haiti have skyrocketed more than $2 billion in two years, according to a new report by a non-profit government spending watchdog.

Spending on the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jumped from $8.9 billion in 2022 to more than $10.9 billion last year, auditors at OpenTheBooks.org (OTB), the Hinsdale, Illinois-based watchdog, found.