HHS Funneled Tens of Billions to Aid Illegals While Americans Struggled, Report

A watchdog report released Thursday revealed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) significantly increased grants for migrants and refugees from 2020 to 2024, directing $22.6 billion in taxpayer funds toward programs that included cash assistance for cars, housing, business startups, and credit-building programs.

The report, compiled by government transparency group OpenTheBooks, found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)—an agency under HHS—distributed billions of dollars to nonprofit organizations tasked with resettling migrants and asylum seekers.

Over the five-year period, ORR drastically expanded eligibility for migrant benefits, awarding over $10 billion in grants in fiscal year 2023 alone.

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This period coincided with record-high border crossings, with 2.4 million apprehensions reported by Customs and Border Protection during the same year.

Among the most expensive grant programs uncovered in the report:

• Dollar-for-dollar savings matching plans for migrants purchasing cars, homes, or funding education
• Small-business loans of up to $15,000
• Credit repair assistance of up to $1,500
• “Cultural orientation” and emergency housing support
• Legal aid and Medicaid assistance

While some of these programs were available only to long-term residents or employed migrants, the sheer scale of spending raised concerns over government accountability and whether these grants encouraged further illegal immigration.

The largest allocation of funding—$12.4 billion—was dedicated to unaccompanied migrant minors, even as ORR faced scrutiny for losing track of over 32,000 migrant children in recent years.

ORR processed approximately 291,000 unaccompanied minors under its care, placing many with unvetted sponsors, some of whom were later found to be abusive or engaged in labor trafficking.

“The Shining City on a Hill, with its walls and doors, makes room for legal immigrants and legitimate refugees and asylum seekers, but the ORR has made a mockery of that vision in recent years,” said John Hart, CEO of OpenTheBooks, in a statement to The New York Post.

Among the largest grant recipients were:

• Church World Services ($355 million since 2020) – A nonprofit that opposed efforts to close asylum loopholes at the U.S.-Canada border.
• International Rescue Committee ($598 million since 2020) – Another organization that received major ORR funding.

Robin Dunn Marcos, a senior HHS official overseeing ORR’s unaccompanied minor program, previously worked for both organizations for over 30 years.

In June 2023, Dunn Marcos testified before Congress that ORR was not conducting criminal background checks on migrant minors as part of its expedited placement program.

A 2022 investigation by The New York Times revealed that then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had pressured staff to process migrant children faster, likening the system to an “assembly line”.

Hart accused ORR of failing to protect migrant children, calling it “the Left’s counterfeit compassion around immigration.”

“Losing track of 300,000 children violates their dignity and puts them at risk,” Hart added.

The Biden-era expansion of ORR programs has already faced pushback from the Trump administration, which revoked $80 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding this week that had been used to house migrants in New York City hotels.

From 2020 to 2024, ORR obligated the following funds:

• $2.6 billion in FY 2020
• $2.3 billion in FY 2021
• $3.3 billion in FY 2022
• $10 billion in FY 2023
• $4.2 billion in FY 2024

While not all of these funds have been disbursed, they remain obligated spending, meaning the funds are earmarked for future payouts.

Dunn Marcos, who had overseen ORR’s migrant child placement program, left government service following President Trump’s return to office on January 20, 2025.

While an HHS spokesperson claimed Dunn Marcos had recused herself from approving funding for past employers, OpenTheBooks has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking more details on her role in grant allocations.

“While Dunn Marcos may have disappeared from ORR, our questions remain over whether certain nonprofit organizations received special treatment amid the billions in grants furnished by the government office,” the watchdog report concluded.

The report further warned that ORR’s actions over the past four years created a network of nonprofits incentivizing mass migration, with billions in taxpayer-funded aid designed to attract even more asylum seekers.

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