$66 million on a temporary immigrant detention center that was hardly used

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), spent $66 million in five months on a temporary, 2,500-person immigration detention facility that housed an average of just 30 detainees a day, and never more than 66 at once.

According to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), CBP paid a private contractor $47 million to establish the detention center in El Paso, Texas and run the facility's support services, such as “meal services, guard services, toilets, and showers."

The report notes that CBP spent about $5.3 million on “the preparation and delivery of meals and snacks” that it did not need. Talk about abusing the corporate credit card — but in this case the credit card is the taxpayer’s wallet.

The facility was ordering food services (three meals a day) for the full capacity of the facility — 2,500 adults — when the center was only housing an average of 28 adults per day. According to the calculations in the report, that means the CBP paid for 675,000 meals in the first three months, when they only needed 13,428.

Another major unnecessary cost at the facility was the excessive number of personnel onsite. The report calculates that for each detainee being held at the facility, there were on average four members of the Texas National Guard, three contracted security guards, and one CBP enforcement officer.

DHS then had the opportunity to close the facility after three months of operating at just 1% capacity. Instead, the department decided to keep it open for another eight weeks, which cost the taxpayers an additional $19 million.million.

Tom Fitton: 'Air Pelosi' – What you don't know about the lucrative travel our leaders enjoy on your dime

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch wrote the following article for Fox News:

When President Trump denied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi use of a military aircraft for a CODEL (congressional delegation trip) to Afghanistan recently, he called the public’s attention to wasteful taxpayer-funded congressional travel.

In his letter to Pelosi blocking the trip, President Trump mentioned the 800,000 federal workers going without pay. The real irony is that U.S. government workers in Afghanistan, who were among those not being paid, worked for two weeks to plan the trip – and on a holiday weekend.

We at Judicial Watch were not at all surprised by this foolishness. For years we have been exposing the lucrative travel our leaders enjoy at taxpayer expense.

We have long noted Pelosi’s abuse of the perks of public office that granted her access to luxury military travel. This current expedition is hardly new for her.

In 2009, during Pelosi’s first speakership, we uncovered documents from the Department of Defense detailing her multiple requests for military air travel. The documents included internal DOD email correspondence detailing attempts by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker’s last-minute cancellations and changes. https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-uncovers-documents-detailing-pelosis-repeated-requests-military-travel/

In response to a series of requests for military aircraft, one Defense Department official wrote, “Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi’s team] if they really intend to do all of these or are they just picking every weekend?… [T]here’s no need to block every weekend ‘just in case’…” The email also notes that Pelosi’s office had, “a history of canceling many of their past requests.”

One DOD official complained about the “hidden costs” associated with the speaker’s last-minute changes and cancellations. “We have … folks prepping the jets and crews driving in (not a short drive for some), cooking meals and preflighting the jets etc.”

The documents include a discussion of House Ethics rules and Defense Department policies as they apply to the speaker’s requests for staff, spouses and extended family to accompany her on military aircraft. In May 2008, for example, Pelosi requested that her husband join her on a CODEL into Iraq. The DOD explained to Pelosi that the agency has a written policy prohibiting spouses from joining CODEL’s into combat zones.

We reported in 2010 that Pelosi’s jet travel cost the Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. Some details:

The average cost of an international CODEL was $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led CODELs, 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.

One CODEL traveling through Tel Aviv, Israel, to Baghdad, Iraq, May 15-20, 2008, included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. Purchases for the CODEL included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

And the CODELs didn’t stop after Speaker Pelosi lost power in 2010. We recently released more FOIA documents showing a bill for $184.587.81 for then-House Minority Leader Pelosi’s CODEL to Italy and Ukraine in 2015.

Shutdowns aside, given that our national debt is nearly $22 trillion, it might be reasonable to ask members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, to forego both the booze and the frivolous junkets.

$240,000 Round Trip Flight

Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly spent nearly a quarter million dollars on a round-trip flight to Guam that ended in Modly’s resignation. Click here for the full report.

$70,000 to send hip-hop stars to India for cultural understanding

Just The News is reporting that the State Department is funding a $70,000 program called “Bridging Cultures Through Hip-Hop”. The goal of the project is to “explore the commonalities and differences between India and the United States through this influential music genre,” according to a State Department grant description. Click here for complete article.

Use Your PC To Fight COVID-19

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