Latest news with #southernborder
CNN
8 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Trump administration takes hundreds of migrant children out of their homes, into government custody
The Trump administration is taking hundreds of migrant children already residing in the United States out of their homes and into government custody, at times separating them from their families and making it more difficult for them to be released, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump and his top aides have repeatedly cited the influx of children who arrived at the US southern border under the Biden administration without a parent or guardian as a critique of his predecessor and his handling of border security. Trump officials argue that hundreds of thousands of those children went unaccounted for — and are in potentially dangerous situations. While former Biden officials contend that the surge of kids in 2021 placed tremendous pressure on the federal system, they and several experts in the field refute claims that there are large numbers of children missing from the system. Still, the notion that there are thousands of such children has served as the impetus for a major campaign by the Trump administration to set up a makeshift 'war room' to pore over sensitive data and deploy federal authorities to children's homes nationwide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken around 500 children into government custody following so-called welfare checks since Trump returned to the White House, according to three sources familiar with the matter, either because their situations were deemed unsafe or because of immigration enforcement actions against sponsors, the majority of whom are the kids' parents or other family members. That number is more than previously known and an unprecedented departure from previous years when such occurrences were rare. The FBI has been involved in some of the welfare checks, frustrating some at the bureau who expressed concerns that the effort is more targeted at finding children's relatives who law enforcement otherwise has no pretext to investigate or arrest, according to a law enforcement official. An FBI spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the agency is assisting other agencies in conducting welfare checks on migrant children. 'Protecting children is a critical mission for the FBI and we will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to secure their safety and well-being,' the spokesperson said. The administration has also put in place additional vetting procedures that have made it all-but-impossible for some parents and guardians to retrieve children in government custody, according to advocates, experts and former Health and Human Services officials. 'They're trying to suffocate the program, which only hurts the children we're statutorily and legally mandated to serve,' one source familiar with the discussions told CNN. Migrant children who arrive in the US alone are placed into the care of a federal agency within the Health and Human Services Department, known as the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which operates shelters nationwide to house kids until they can be released to a parent or guardian sponsor already residing in the United States. Currently, there are more than 2,500 children in the custody of ORR, according to federal data. Migrant children are also staying in government custody much longer on average than they were previously. Internally, agency officials have acknowledged that children may languish in facilities amid new policy guidelines making it harder to release kids to people in the US. They've also discussed the toll it's taking on children in custody, some of whom are reporting that they're depressed, according to a source familiar with discussions. In Trump's first term, his administration sparked controversy by separating families at the US southern border as part of its 'zero tolerance' policy. In this term, children are being removed from sponsors, many of whom are family members, over potential wellbeing concerns. But advocates, experts and former Health and Human Services officials point to post-release services and programs already in place to check in on children. They warn the latest actions by the administration stand to hurt, not help, children. Trump officials maintain the steps they've taken are for the safety of the children and are necessary ones, casting the Biden administration's handling of migrant children as scrambled and mishandled. 'DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure they are safe and not being exploited. These welfare checks have resulted in arrests of some sponsors of these unaccompanied minors and as a result the children have been placed in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security cited two examples in a statement, including a Guatemalan migrant with a criminal record who was approved to care for a 14-year-old family member in 2023, and a man who arranged for a child to be smuggled into the US and transported to Virginia at a steep cost. DHS didn't provide additional details on the cases. Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Andrew Nixon told CNN in a statement that ORR is 'restoring' the agency's mission, claiming that it was 'abandoned' under the previous administration. 'Let's be clear: no child should ever be placed with someone who can't meet basic safety standards. If it's 'impossible' for a sponsor to clear those standards, then they have no business caring for a child,' Nixon said. A 2024 Health and Human Services inspector general report identified some vulnerabilities in the ORR release process, finding that while ORR 'generally conducted all steps for sponsor screening for most children' in their sample, 16 percent of cases lacked documentation that safety checks were done. Dozens of children who were released to sponsors have been visited at their homes by immigration enforcement officers who, upon arriving, have asked the kids a range of questions, according to legal service providers who work with them. Topics have included their journey to the US southern border, school attendance and immigration hearings. While there have been cases of trafficking and extortion of unaccompanied children that have been documented, the approach — sending an immigration enforcement officer, instead of a child welfare expert — to check in on kids is concerning to providers who work with children. 'It's scaring people, and it's unnecessary,' said Laura Nally, program director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Children's Program, referring to the way the administration was conducting it's check ins. Migrant children already go through multiple steps before being released to a person, like a parent or relative in the United States, who has been thoroughly vetted. In recent years, the agency charged with their care has expanded post-release services to check on children after they leave government custody. 'What the post release services do is provide help when children and their sponsors need help with school enrollment, health needs, links to other services in the community,' said Mark Greenberg, a former senior HHS official who served multiple administrations. The post-release service provider is also directed to alert any concerns to child welfare authorities or law enforcement authorities as appropriate, Greenberg said. 'To the extent the goal is to determine children are in danger or in need of help, this isn't a good way to go about doing that because it places children in a situation where they have to be fearful that anything they say could be used against their parent or family member,' he added, referring to the ICE welfare checks. A family who went to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services office for a routine appointment was picked up by ICE—the parents were taken into ICE custody, while their three young children were taken into ORR custody, according to a source familiar with the incident. In another instance, a child was in the passenger seat of a vehicle during a traffic stop and was sent back into ORR custody, the source said. 'We're seeing the warning signs right now,' Nally said. 'There's a concern that these welfare check ins could turn into the mass detention of sponsors and mass return of kids to ORR.' Experts say it's unusual for children to be swiftly sent back into ORR custody, but their concerns extend beyond that, arguing that additional guidelines for releases make it more difficult for those kids to leave custody again and fast-track deportation proceedings could put them at risk of removal. The average length of care for children in custody has jumped from 67 days in December 2024 to 170 days in April 2025 as guidelines to release kids have become more stringent. Under Trump, the agency has placed additional checks on sponsors that include income requirements, stringent ID requirements and DNA tests. Those steps, which are layered on top of already-existing background checks, are particularly chilling for sponsors who are undocumented, which is often the case, former HHS officials say. A recent lawsuit argued that 'collectively, these policy changes have resulted in children across the country being separated from their loving families, while the government denies their release, unnecessarily prolonging their detention.' The guidelines have halted reunifications that were already set to take place for children in government custody. Two brothers, ages 7 and 14, were detained at a transitional foster care program in California. They have not been able to be released 'to their mother because she's been is unable to provide documents required' as part of the new policy guidance, according to the lawsuit. 'The steps that they have taken are ones that are not about child safety but rather about making it more difficult or impossible for undocumented parents and relatives to be able to be united or reunited with a child,' Greenberg told CNN. Within days of Trump taking office, a conference room in the Health and Human Services Department's Washington, DC, headquarters was transformed into a 'war room' for the purpose of tracking down migrant children, according to multiple sources. That room has become the centralized place where multiple federal agencies have gathered to pore over sensitive data about children who crossed the US southern border alone and share that information with the Department of Homeland Security. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the war room last month to get briefed on the work there, according to one of the sources. According to multiple sources, Immigration and Customs Enforcement now has access to the Office of Refugee Resettlement portal, which contains sensitive information about children, including the basis for their immigration relief, like asylum, details about their sponsor placement and protected medical information. ORR has been responsible for unaccompanied migrant children for more than two decades, since former President George W. Bush signed legislation moving the care of kids out of an immigration enforcement agency. The agency's mandate is to place children 'in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child,' usually with a family member. In the early days of the Trump administration, the White House moved a senior ICE official, Melissa Harper, to oversee ORR, sending a message that, like his first term, immigration enforcement would be folded into an agency primarily focused on child welfare, according to three sources familiar with the matter. 'The message was clear that this was going to be a very enforcement-oriented regime and almost immediately people were being questioned and prodded on what was being done to protect children from traffickers, what was done to ensure children weren't released to dangerous sponsors,' said Mary Giovagnoli, who led ORR's ombudsman's office before she was terminated last month. Harper's short tenure — the outcome of internal disagreements, sources familiar said—later paved the way for Angie Salazar to take the helm. According to sources, Salazar, who also came from ICE, talks to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller frequently and has directed agency officials to quickly approve policy changes. Trump officials haven't provided evidence for their contention that hundreds of thousands of children are unaccounted for but appear to be basing that on a Homeland Security inspector general report stating that nearly 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children were not given notices to appear in court. That, however, doesn't mean they're missing, according to former officials. The DHS IG last August found that ICE didn't serve notices to appear, a document that instructs people to appear before an immigration judge, to more than 291,000 children. But it didn't explain whether that was, for example, a capacity issue or because addresses were missing. In a House panel hearing in May, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers, 'President Trump has made it a priority of every Cabinet secretary and agency to make sure those children are located, that they're returned to safety. … The refugee program and sponsors were greatly abused in the previous administrations. The department of HHS is bringing some integrity back to the program.' Jen Smyers, a former ORR deputy director who served under Biden, told CNN that rushing is never appropriate, but that there are multiple checks sponsors have to go through to ensure quality control. 'There was rigorous vetting of all sponsors,' Smyers said, adding that sponsors went through Justice Department public records checks and sex offender registry checks. 'There's a difference between the vetting and what happens afterward. No amount of vetting is a predictor of the future.'
CNN
8 hours ago
- General
- CNN
Trump administration takes hundreds of migrant children out of their homes, into government custody
The Trump administration is taking hundreds of migrant children already residing in the United States out of their homes and into government custody, at times separating them from their families and making it more difficult for them to be released, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump and his top aides have repeatedly cited the influx of children who arrived at the US southern border under the Biden administration without a parent or guardian as a critique of his predecessor and his handling of border security. Trump officials argue that hundreds of thousands of those children went unaccounted for — and are in potentially dangerous situations. While former Biden officials contend that the surge of kids in 2021 placed tremendous pressure on the federal system, they and several experts in the field refute claims that there are large numbers of children missing from the system. Still, the notion that there are thousands of such children has served as the impetus for a major campaign by the Trump administration to set up a makeshift 'war room' to pore over sensitive data and deploy federal authorities to children's homes nationwide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken around 500 children into government custody following so-called welfare checks since Trump returned to the White House, according to three sources familiar with the matter, either because their situations were deemed unsafe or because of immigration enforcement actions against sponsors, the majority of whom are the kids' parents or other family members. That number is more than previously known and an unprecedented departure from previous years when such occurrences were rare. The FBI has been involved in some of the welfare checks, frustrating some at the bureau who expressed concerns that the effort is more targeted at finding children's relatives who law enforcement otherwise has no pretext to investigate or arrest, according to a law enforcement official. An FBI spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the agency is assisting other agencies in conducting welfare checks on migrant children. 'Protecting children is a critical mission for the FBI and we will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to secure their safety and well-being,' the spokesperson said. The administration has also put in place additional vetting procedures that have made it all-but-impossible for some parents and guardians to retrieve children in government custody, according to advocates, experts and former Health and Human Services officials. 'They're trying to suffocate the program, which only hurts the children we're statutorily and legally mandated to serve,' one source familiar with the discussions told CNN. Migrant children who arrive in the US alone are placed into the care of a federal agency within the Health and Human Services Department, known as the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which operates shelters nationwide to house kids until they can be released to a parent or guardian sponsor already residing in the United States. Currently, there are more than 2,500 children in the custody of ORR, according to federal data. Migrant children are also staying in government custody much longer on average than they were previously. Internally, agency officials have acknowledged that children may languish in facilities amid new policy guidelines making it harder to release kids to people in the US. They've also discussed the toll it's taking on children in custody, some of whom are reporting that they're depressed, according to a source familiar with discussions. In Trump's first term, his administration sparked controversy by separating families at the US southern border as part of its 'zero tolerance' policy. In this term, children are being removed from sponsors, many of whom are family members, over potential wellbeing concerns. But advocates, experts and former Health and Human Services officials point to post-release services and programs already in place to check in on children. They warn the latest actions by the administration stand to hurt, not help, children. Trump officials maintain the steps they've taken are for the safety of the children and are necessary ones, casting the Biden administration's handling of migrant children as scrambled and mishandled. 'DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure they are safe and not being exploited. These welfare checks have resulted in arrests of some sponsors of these unaccompanied minors and as a result the children have been placed in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security cited two examples in a statement, including a Guatemalan migrant with a criminal record who was approved to care for a 14-year-old family member in 2023, and a man who arranged for a child to be smuggled into the US and transported to Virginia at a steep cost. DHS didn't provide additional details on the cases. Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Andrew Nixon told CNN in a statement that ORR is 'restoring' the agency's mission, claiming that it was 'abandoned' under the previous administration. 'Let's be clear: no child should ever be placed with someone who can't meet basic safety standards. If it's 'impossible' for a sponsor to clear those standards, then they have no business caring for a child,' Nixon said. A 2024 Health and Human Services inspector general report identified some vulnerabilities in the ORR release process, finding that while ORR 'generally conducted all steps for sponsor screening for most children' in their sample, 16 percent of cases lacked documentation that safety checks were done. Dozens of children who were released to sponsors have been visited at their homes by immigration enforcement officers who, upon arriving, have asked the kids a range of questions, according to legal service providers who work with them. Topics have included their journey to the US southern border, school attendance and immigration hearings. While there have been cases of trafficking and extortion of unaccompanied children that have been documented, the approach — sending an immigration enforcement officer, instead of a child welfare expert — to check in on kids is concerning to providers who work with children. 'It's scaring people, and it's unnecessary,' said Laura Nally, program director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Children's Program, referring to the way the administration was conducting it's check ins. Migrant children already go through multiple steps before being released to a person, like a parent or relative in the United States, who has been thoroughly vetted. In recent years, the agency charged with their care has expanded post-release services to check on children after they leave government custody. 'What the post release services do is provide help when children and their sponsors need help with school enrollment, health needs, links to other services in the community,' said Mark Greenberg, a former senior HHS official who served multiple administrations. The post-release service provider is also directed to alert any concerns to child welfare authorities or law enforcement authorities as appropriate, Greenberg said. 'To the extent the goal is to determine children are in danger or in need of help, this isn't a good way to go about doing that because it places children in a situation where they have to be fearful that anything they say could be used against their parent or family member,' he added, referring to the ICE welfare checks. A family who went to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services office for a routine appointment was picked up by ICE—the parents were taken into ICE custody, while their three young children were taken into ORR custody, according to a source familiar with the incident. In another instance, a child was in the passenger seat of a vehicle during a traffic stop and was sent back into ORR custody, the source said. 'We're seeing the warning signs right now,' Nally said. 'There's a concern that these welfare check ins could turn into the mass detention of sponsors and mass return of kids to ORR.' Experts say it's unusual for children to be swiftly sent back into ORR custody, but their concerns extend beyond that, arguing that additional guidelines for releases make it more difficult for those kids to leave custody again and fast-track deportation proceedings could put them at risk of removal. The average length of care for children in custody has jumped from 67 days in December 2024 to 170 days in April 2025 as guidelines to release kids have become more stringent. Under Trump, the agency has placed additional checks on sponsors that include income requirements, stringent ID requirements and DNA tests. Those steps, which are layered on top of already-existing background checks, are particularly chilling for sponsors who are undocumented, which is often the case, former HHS officials say. A recent lawsuit argued that 'collectively, these policy changes have resulted in children across the country being separated from their loving families, while the government denies their release, unnecessarily prolonging their detention.' The guidelines have halted reunifications that were already set to take place for children in government custody. Two brothers, ages 7 and 14, were detained at a transitional foster care program in California. They have not been able to be released 'to their mother because she's been is unable to provide documents required' as part of the new policy guidance, according to the lawsuit. 'The steps that they have taken are ones that are not about child safety but rather about making it more difficult or impossible for undocumented parents and relatives to be able to be united or reunited with a child,' Greenberg told CNN. Within days of Trump taking office, a conference room in the Health and Human Services Department's Washington, DC, headquarters was transformed into a 'war room' for the purpose of tracking down migrant children, according to multiple sources. That room has become the centralized place where multiple federal agencies have gathered to pore over sensitive data about children who crossed the US southern border alone and share that information with the Department of Homeland Security. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the war room last month to get briefed on the work there, according to one of the sources. According to multiple sources, Immigration and Customs Enforcement now has access to the Office of Refugee Resettlement portal, which contains sensitive information about children, including the basis for their immigration relief, like asylum, details about their sponsor placement and protected medical information. ORR has been responsible for unaccompanied migrant children for more than two decades, since former President George W. Bush signed legislation moving the care of kids out of an immigration enforcement agency. The agency's mandate is to place children 'in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child,' usually with a family member. In the early days of the Trump administration, the White House moved a senior ICE official, Melissa Harper, to oversee ORR, sending a message that, like his first term, immigration enforcement would be folded into an agency primarily focused on child welfare, according to three sources familiar with the matter. 'The message was clear that this was going to be a very enforcement-oriented regime and almost immediately people were being questioned and prodded on what was being done to protect children from traffickers, what was done to ensure children weren't released to dangerous sponsors,' said Mary Giovagnoli, who led ORR's ombudsman's office before she was terminated last month. Harper's short tenure — the outcome of internal disagreements, sources familiar said—later paved the way for Angie Salazar to take the helm. According to sources, Salazar, who also came from ICE, talks to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller frequently and has directed agency officials to quickly approve policy changes. Trump officials haven't provided evidence for their contention that hundreds of thousands of children are unaccounted for but appear to be basing that on a Homeland Security inspector general report stating that nearly 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children were not given notices to appear in court. That, however, doesn't mean they're missing, according to former officials. The DHS IG last August found that ICE didn't serve notices to appear, a document that instructs people to appear before an immigration judge, to more than 291,000 children. But it didn't explain whether that was, for example, a capacity issue or because addresses were missing. In a House panel hearing in May, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers, 'President Trump has made it a priority of every Cabinet secretary and agency to make sure those children are located, that they're returned to safety. … The refugee program and sponsors were greatly abused in the previous administrations. The department of HHS is bringing some integrity back to the program.' Jen Smyers, a former ORR deputy director who served under Biden, told CNN that rushing is never appropriate, but that there are multiple checks sponsors have to go through to ensure quality control. 'There was rigorous vetting of all sponsors,' Smyers said, adding that sponsors went through Justice Department public records checks and sex offender registry checks. 'There's a difference between the vetting and what happens afterward. No amount of vetting is a predictor of the future.'
Fox News
2 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
Liberal news outlet mocked for reporting on ‘mysterious' drop in fentanyl flowing across border
The Washington Post is being mocked online and by the White House for "pathetic" reporting on what the liberal-leaning news outlet calls a "mysterious" decline in fentanyl flowing across the border. Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that is often trafficked into the United States across the southern and northern borders by cartels and other criminal elements. In 2024, fentanyl was linked to the death of 48,422 persons in the United States, according to the CDC. During his campaign, President Donald Trump vowed to wage a war against fentanyl traffickers through increased border security and by cracking down on illegal immigration. Since taking office, Trump has deployed U.S. troops to the southern border, targeted cartels and transnational criminal groups as "foreign terrorist organizations" and hit cartel leaders with sanctions. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the U.S. law enforcement seizures of fentanyl, which the group explains is a "key indicator of broader total smuggling at and between the southern border's ports of entry," have dropped 50% since the November election. CIS states that this significant decline indicates a "greater decline in total fentanyl smuggling." The Washington Post reports on this decline, stating that U.S. seizures at the southern border are down by almost 30 percent compared with the same period in 2024. The outlet, however, states that the drop "represents something of a mystery." "After years of confiscating rising amounts of fentanyl, the opioid that has fueled the most lethal drug epidemic in American history, U.S. officials are confronting a new and puzzling reality at the Mexican border. Fentanyl seizures are plummeting," wrote the Post. Among the possible reasons listed by the outlet are cartels finding other ways to smuggle the drug into the U.S., cartel internal strife, ingredient shortages and a possible decline in demand. Though baffled by the reason for the decline, The Washington Post posited that "public health authorities are concerned that the Trump administration's budget cuts could hurt programs that have promoted overdose antidotes and addiction treatment." The article was widely mocked by conservatives online. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., commented on X, "The Washington Post is reporting a 'mysterious drop' in fentanyl seizures at the southern border. Mystery solved! The Trump effect is working." Charlie Kirk, a popular conservative influencer, also commented, saying: "Four months into the Trump administration, The Washington Post is marveling at the 'mysterious' drop in fentanyl seizures on the Mexican border … Is the Post simply lying, or are their reporters as dumb as the people they're writing propaganda for?" The Department of Homeland Security's official X account also replied, commenting: "It's no mystery. On day one, [President] Trump closed our borders to drug traffickers." DHS said that "from March 2024 to March 2025 fentanyl traffic at the southern border fell by 54%." "The world has heard the message loud and clear," said DHS. Several top White House spokespersons also weighed in. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt simply called the Post "pathetic," and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said: "They can't stand that President Trump's strong border policies have led to a DECREASE in fentanyl coming into the U.S." Abigail Jackson, another White House spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital that "the drop in fentanyl seizures at the border is only a mystery to Washington Post reporters suffering from Trump-Derangement Syndrome." "As of March, fentanyl traffic at the Southern Border had fallen by more than half from the same time last year – while Joe Biden's open border was still terrorizing America," said Jackson. "Everyone else knows the simple truth: President Trump closed our border to illegal drug traffickers and Americans are safer because of it." The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request by Fox News Digital for comment.
Fox News
2 days ago
- General
- Fox News
New voluntary deployment lets DOD civilian workers back Homeland Security efforts amid immigration crackdown
The Defense Department (DOD) is starting a voluntary program for its civilian employees to go to the southern border to support Department of Homeland Security (DHS) efforts there. The agency released a memo Monday authorizing its civilian employees to volunteer to travel and support border operations. "Protecting our homeland from bad actors and illegal substances has been a focus of the President and of the Secretary of Defense since Day One of this Administration," said Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson. "Whether on the border or in our communities, allowing qualified DoD civilian employees to support DHS will accelerate the progress already made by Service members in achieving our national security goals." This voluntary program was at the request of DHS, a U.S. official told Fox News. It was not clear how many DOD civilian employees are expected to volunteer or what kind of work they will do. Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOD and DHS. The memo, authored by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, reads, "Detail assignments may be either reimbursable or non-reimbursable. "Non-reimbursable details are authorized where the expected benefit of a detail would be comparable to training or development programs that otherwise would be conducted at a DoD Component's expense." News of the voluntary program comes as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration and target criminal illegal immigrants for deportation.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Musk's departure marks new chapter for government efficiency in border security
As the Department of Government Efficiency enters a new era with the departure of Elon Musk on Friday, it has caused numerous changes in recent months on matters of immigration and border security. "DOGE has helped to transform the Federal government by eliminating waste and bloat that has been ignored for years. DOGE is playing a key role in eliminating millions of taxpayer money being misspent, including contracts for illegal alien facilities that sat empty during the Biden Border invasion and funding for hotel rooms to house illegal gang members. DOGE's mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse continues!" Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital in a statement on Friday. In February, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had gutted an $83 million contract for "an empty illegal alien facility during an invasion at the southern border" and the $80 million in FEMA funding to provide lodging for illegal immigrants in New York City, like the Roosevelt Hotel. In March, a contract to resume wall construction along seven miles of the border was cleared by DOGE. "Secretary Noem announced that we officially awarded the first [DOGE] approved contract to restart construction on President Trump's border wall," DHS posted on March 17. DOGE also posted to X in April that it had found that many illegal immigrants who were on the FBI's terror watchlist and those who have a criminal history were taking out public benefits. Four on the terror watchlist and 901 other "paroled aliens" were "collecting Medicaid," 41 received unemployment benefits, 22 got student loans from the federal government and 409 got a "net" tax refund in 2024, according to the department. The cost of the tax refunds was $751,000, Medicaid cost $276,000, and the student loans totaled out to $280,000, the department said. "Under the Biden administration, it was routine for Border Patrol to admit aliens into the United States with no legal status and minimal screening," the post stated. "So far, CBP identified a subset of 6.3k individuals paroled into the United States since 2023 on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center watchlist or with criminal records. These paroles have since been terminated with immediate effect. Despite having no other legal status, paroled aliens are able to file for work authorization and receive social security numbers." Outside of immigration and border security, DHS said the Coast Guard is expected to save $32.7 million by scrapping an information technology system that was deemed "ineffective." In a video posted in May about the partnership between DOGE and DHS, it said the funds are going to "frontline operations." "Another win for government efficiency at DHS!" DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to Fox News Digital in April. "Continuing the crucial work of DOGE, the Coast Guard eliminated an ineffective IT program, saving over $32 million and focusing its resources where they're most needed to protect the homeland. The USCG continues to deliver on the President's priorities, maximizing its efficiency while securing our borders and maritime approaches," Noem added. DHS and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also recently announced a planned crackdown on illegal immigrants' use of public housing benefits. And last month, DHS announced that, in the spirit of cracking down on "waste, fraud and abuse," it was ending FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. "The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters," a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement at the time. "Under Secretary Noem's leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need." Fox News reached out to DHS for additional comment. The changes come as President Donald Trump made major policy changes during the early days of his second term, which has led to a sharp decrease in encounters at the border and a continued crackdown on illegal immigrants with a criminal background in the U.S. interior. In total, DOGE has estimated it has saved $175 billion for taxpayers so far.
