The Biden-Harris administration’s border negligence took on a new dimension as, with thousands of convicted illegal aliens throughout the country, a report detailed detention center vacancies.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts to rebrand Bidenomics as an “Opportunity Economy” and keep killing of the unborn at the forefront of her campaign remained insufficient to distance her from her record as “border czar.”

As the White House hopeful’s recent photo-op border visit was likened to an “arsonist” returning to a crime scene, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data revealed more than 435,000 convicted criminal illegal aliens and over 226,000 with pending criminal charges were on the non-detained docket.

Those figures came as the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) recorded that of 41,500 detention beds funded by the American taxpayer through Congress, only 37,395 were being used as of Sept. 8 leaving more than 4,100 vacant.

According to a report from the Office of the Inspector General:

“Eight of 17 (47 percent) facilities paid for unused bedspace under a guaranteed minimum contract or agreement. Under these contracts or agreements, ICE guarantees minimum payments to detention facility contractors or state and local governments–paying for beds regardless of use. From FYs 2020 to 2023, we found eight facilities inspected paid for unused bed space, paying approximately $160 million under contract…Although ICE must acquire and maintain enough bed space to satisfy demand for population surges and must adjust for health and safety requirements, it must also strive for balance to avoid wasting funds on empty beds.”

Amid the revelations about the waste going toward funding empty beds while illegal aliens were put up in hotels in cities across the country, a separate report from the House Committee on Homeland Security added context to the crisis wherein the current administration had allowed millions of foreign nationals to pour into the United States.

“By 2022, the Biden-Harris administration had ‘quietly ended the practice of detaining immigrant families’ altogether,” the report noted as release rates of single adults entering the country rapidly increased to 85% — a point admitted by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Jan. 2024.

“One would expect that amidst skyrocketing illegal crossings that the administration would request more ICE detention beds to increase enforcement capacity. However, the Biden-Harris administration has consistently asked for fewer ICE beds than the prior administration, while also failing to use all the beds made available by Congress. At the same time, it has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in non-competitive contracts to politically connected groups–many of whom have no experience in detention–to house illegal aliens, instead of filling already-paid-for ICE beds.”

Meanwhile, acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner was on record before Congress in April seeking an increase in beds to 50,000 while the impeached Mayorkas was said to have been requesting a decrease in their availability.

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Kevin Haggerty

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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