ICE gave $87M no-bid contract to business with Biden ties, raising conflict of interest questions

[Geee]

Washington Examiner

 

The Biden administration did not solicit bids for a multimillion contract to house migrant families in hotels and instead gave the massive contract to an organization whose leadership has ties to the White House, including one official who was on the Biden transition team.

In its rush to stand up facilities to hold families who come over the southern border illegally in rising numbers, the Biden administration signed a deal that a member of Congress and people with knowledge of the matter said presented a conflict of interest and wasted existing government facilities.

 

Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (an agency of the Department of Homeland Security) signed an $87 million contract to acquire and oversee an operation involving 1,200 hotel beds to house migrant families in Arizona and Texas. The contract was given to the nonprofit organization Family Endeavors, based out of San Antonio, Texas, which has no previous history as an ICE contractor.

But Family Endeavors does have a former senior official on the Biden transition team in its leadership: former ICE official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, identified as a potential broker in the deal by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who is tracking the contract, as well as two others with knowledge of the situation.