$22.6 Billion: HHS Spent Taxpayer Money on Illegal Migrant Resettlement, Home Purchases, and Loans

§ 01 / The Program

Biden HHS Channeled $22.6 Billion Through the Office of Refugee Resettlement — Including to Individuals Who Entered Illegally

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was created to provide temporary assistance to legal refugees fleeing persecution. Under the Biden administration, ORR’s mandate expanded dramatically to absorb an unprecedented wave of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally — over 300,000 between 2021 and 2024 — along with asylum seekers, parolees, and individuals released into the country under humanitarian parole programs. DOGE flagged $22.6 billion in total HHS expenditures on migrant services as a target for review.

The services included shelter and care for unaccompanied minors, resettlement grants to voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), cash and medical assistance, employment authorization processing, home purchase assistance through affiliated nonprofits, and low-interest loan programs administered by ORR grantees. GAO issued findings in 2023 that HHS lacked adequate oversight of where unaccompanied children were released and whether sponsors were vetted — a failure that left thousands of children unaccounted for in HHS tracking systems.

The Oversight Failure

GAO found that HHS could not account for the whereabouts of thousands of unaccompanied children it had placed with sponsors. HHS OIG separately found that ORR did not conduct required post-release checks in a statistically significant number of cases. The $22.6 billion includes legitimate refugee services and illegitimate expansions alike — the program was built for legal refugees but repurposed at scale for illegal border crossers. That commingling of populations is itself a policy choice with a dollar amount: $22.6 billion.

§ 02 / Scale of Services

ORR grant recipients provided a wide range of services that went far beyond basic shelter. Congressional investigators found that certain ORR-funded nonprofits connected migrants with vehicle purchase loans, home rental assistance including security deposits and first month’s rent, employment services, English language classes, legal representation for immigration proceedings, mental health services, and in some cases assistance with down payments for home purchases through affiliated housing programs. These services are provided to individuals who were not legally admitted to the country.

The Biden administration expanded the population eligible for ORR services through successive executive actions — adding Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parolees; Afghan humanitarian parolees; and other groups admitted outside normal immigration channels. Each expansion increased the ORR-eligible population and corresponding expenditures. The $22.6 billion figure covers fiscal years 2021 through 2024.

What This Means

$22.6 billion in HHS expenditures on migrant resettlement services, including to individuals who entered the country illegally. The ORR was designed for legal refugees; the Biden administration repurposed it at scale for illegal border crossers and parolees. GAO and HHS OIG found significant oversight failures, including inability to track thousands of unaccompanied children post-placement. DOGE flagged the full portfolio for review. The legitimacy of refugee services for legal asylum-seekers is not in question. The expansion of those services — at $22.6 billion — to individuals who were not lawfully admitted is the contested policy choice.

Sources · 10 Citations