In the wake of an undercover Project Veritas video in which a Biden administration official claims to have masterminded a “corrupt bargain” to award nearly $3 billion in border enforcement contracts to politically-connected cronies, Congress is now launching an investigation.
U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-Tenn.), Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) and Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Clay Higgins (R-La.) are now asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement for documents and information on former ICE employee and member of President Biden’s 2020 transition team, Andrew Lorenzen-Strait.
In a hidden video recorded by a Project Veritas investigator, Lorenzen-Strait claims to have brokered deals to give multimillion-dollar sole-source contracts to non-profits and non-governmental organizations that were unable to perform the work, but got the money through political connections.
Three of the contracts alone total around $3 billion.
The Committee requests “more information detailing ICE’s contract evaluation process and communications between Mr. Lorenzen-Strait and his former subordinate at ICE, Claire Trickler-McNulty, who is now Assistant Director of the Office of Immigration Program Evaluation at the agency.”
The Chairmen also requested “communications between Ms. Trickler-McNulty and three organizations affiliated with Mr. Lorenzen-Strait.”
In the letter, the Chairmen stated, “On January 20, 2021, Family Endeavors, Inc. (Endeavors) named Mr. Lorenzen-Strait the Senior Director for Migrant Services and Federal Affairs. Immediately preceding his position with Endeavors, Mr. Lorenzen-Strait served on the Biden-Harris transition team. He is also a former official at ICE. In March 2021, just two months after Mr. Lorenzen-Strait joined Endeavors, ICE awarded an $86.9 million sole source contract to Endeavors to provide beds and services in hotels for illegal migrants crossing the southwest border. In April 2021, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) began a review of ICE’s sole source contract with Endeavors.”
The Chairmen continued, “On April 12, 2022, the OIG issued a report, finding that ICE did not adequately justify the need for its sole source contract with Endeavors and spent nearly $17 million on hotel space and services that went largely unused. The OIG noted that Endeavors sent ICE a proposal for housing migrant families without ICE requesting such a proposal. The OIG also found that Endeavors ‘had no experience providing the services covered by the sole source contract’ and that ICE provided ‘no documentation to show that Endeavors had the capability to provide such services.’ The OIG’s findings raise important questions about Mr. Lorenzen-Strait’s involvement in the contract proposal.”
The Chairmen concluded, “On August 8, 2023, journalists with Project Veritas released a video of Mr. Lorenzen- Strait cavalierly bragging about his participation in government contracts related to migrant services. Specifically, Mr. Lorenzen-Strait referred to what appears to be the Endeavors contract as a ‘corrupt bargain.’ He further discussed ‘brokering’ a deal that won Cherokee Federal, a team of tribally owned federal contracting companies, a nearly $2 billion contract with the federal government to provide services to unaccompanied alien children. […] Mr. Lorenzen-Strait’s comments in the Project Veritas video are deeply disturbing. The Committee is concerned that despite clear conflicts of interest and prior scrutiny, Mr. Lorenzen- Strait may be influencing ICE’s contracts for migrant services with non-governmental and non-profit organizations. Additionally, the Committee is concerned with Mr. Lorenzen-Strait’s relationships with current ICE contracting officials. The Committee has been made aware that Mr. Lorenzen-Strait’s former subordinate at ICE, Ms. Claire Trickler-McNulty, is now the Assistant Director of the Office of Immigration Program Evaluation.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The question you all should be asking:
Who, among the Republican candidates, is strong enough to undo all the damage that has been done by the Biden Whitehouse and the Democrat permanent administrative state? That capability “trumps” mean tweets.
There isn’t a ‘Democrat permanent administrative state.” There is a Republican/Democrat permanent administrative state and to think that any Republican is going to fix it is foolish, wishful thinking. There is a reason why the RNC and DNC will not allow any other political party in the debates. They play off each other, feigning indignancy as they pat each other on the back and live the good life of a politician.
Sean I could not agree more. Even today the reactions all feel like just a show and utterly nothing is done to really stop the dim wits in their unpatriotic agenda.
Might believe them if the republicans ever did anything, but they don’t!