A Republican-led House committee subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra Wednesday after his agency refused to hand over information about taxpayer-subsidized housing for migrants.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded that Becerra answer questions posed back in July about housing assistance funding and referrals provided to border-crossers by HHS’ Office of Refuge Resettlement (ORR).
“[S]ince July 2024, we have sought information about ORR’s coordination with the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Homeland Security to use taxpayer dollars to pay for housing assistance for aliens in the country,” Jordan wrote.
“The Committee also has sought information about ORR’s relationship with Church World Service and the organization’s Refugee Housing Solutions, through which aliens can be connected with housing resources.”
Judiciary staff have gone back and forth with ORR since the summer about the requested records — only to receive on Oct. 4 seven pages of documents that “included nothing of substance and cannot possibly encompass all relevant documents and communications in HHS’s possession or control,” the letter notes.
“The failure to provide the requested materials hinders the Committee’s ability to fulfill its constitutional oversight obligations,” said Jordan, who demanded the records by Oct. 30.
Migrants from all over the world have flooded into the US over the past three and a half years looking for economic opportunities — with many being given a boost from taxpayer-funded federal, state and local programs.
In New York City alone, total spending on services for migrants — such as housing, food and medical costs — has already topped $5 billion since the start of fiscal year 2023.
Historic hotels like the Roosevelt in Midtown and others near tourist districts like Broadway have been converted into emergency shelters for asylum-seekers.
Some migrants at the Roosevelt earlier this year were even given prepaid credit cards with a $35 per diem month to month — amounting to $53 million spent on a pilot program.
Jordan’s committee previously released a report in July cataloging an array of other federal benefit programs for housing, food and health care available to migrants ushered into the US.
The Immigration and Refugee Program for Church World Service is run by Erol Kekic, a critic of the Trump administration’s refugee, asylum and border policies.
Under President Biden, Kekic’s group has helped many migrants travel from border states like Texas to resettle so-called “sanctuary” cities like New York.
Reps for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
