The ten largest recipients of federal refugee assistance grants have received billions from the federal government since 2022 as Biden struggled to stem the tide of asylum seekers arriving at the southern border.
The federal government has pledged roughly $5 billion in the last two years to a collection of state-level government agencies and NGOs to assist the administration in processing asylum seekers, refugees and others entering the country seeking protection by providing placement services, food, cash assistance, employment training, language instruction, medical assistance and other services, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of federal grants. Record numbers of asylum seekers and an increasing number of refugees have flowed into the country as President Joe Biden fields bi-partisan criticism over his handling of the border.
The grants serve refugees, some asylum seekers, individuals granted asylum and others who have entered the country under unusual circumstances, such as unaccompanied minors.
Cubans and Haitians who have entered the country may be eligible to receive Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) benefits even if they are in removal proceedings or if they have a pending asylum application, according to the Administration for Children and Families. Approximately 425,000 Cubans and 130,000 Haitians were encountered at the southern border in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants have been distributed through the ORR since 2022.
The ten organizations to receive the most funds from the Biden administration to accommodate refugees and others entering the country were the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Catholic Charities Fort Worth, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the California Department of Social Services, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, the Virginia Department of Social Services, the Illinois Department of Human Services and Catholic Charities Louisville.
The DCNF’s analysis is not comprehensive, as the federal government awarded refugee assistance grants to a number of smaller organizations, making Biden’s actual spending on refugee accommodation higher. (RELATED: Mayorkas Dodges Question About Whether Illegal Immigrants Should Be Released Into The Country En Masse)
Grants counted in the DCNF’s analysis included those awarded under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the Refugee Support Services Program, the Refugee and Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Programs, the Refugee and Entrant Assistance Discretionary Grants program and the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program.
The DCNF gathered funding information for all grants disbursed under these programs since January 1, 2022, and recorded the total amount received by every organization participating in said programs. The DCNF then ranked the organizations by the cumulative amount they received from the federal government and tallied the total funding for the top ten organizations.
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The federal government has spent far more on accommodating refugees and others entering the country in the last two years under Biden than during former President Donald Trump’s entire tenure in office.
The Trump administration’s top 10 refugee grant recipients only received around $1.5 billion during the former president’s four-year term.
Biden’s heightened spending on accommodating refugees and others entering the country coincides with record numbers of migrants pouring across the border and seeking asylum.
Over 100,000 people have crossed the southern border under the Biden administration’s watch every month since February 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. More than 1.3 million people had outstanding asylum applications as of May 2020, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Biden also increased the maximum number of refugees the United States would accept after taking office.
In the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year, then-President Trump reduced the maximum number of refugees the United States would accept to 15,000 annually, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Biden increased that cap to 125,000 in the 2022 fiscal year and has maintained it at that level since, including for the 2024 fiscal year. The number of refugees accepted by the United States has grown under the Biden administration, after falling significantly under Trump.
“State spending increased commensurate with increases in refugee admissions,” a State Department spokesperson told the DCNF.
“The President’s budget request for FY 2024 included $930 million for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. We continue to make progress to meet the POTUS target of 125,000 for refugee admissions.”
The federal government isn’t the only government body spending large sums of taxpayer dollars on accommodating the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants that are flowing into the country every month.
New York City had spent more than $2 billion accommodating asylum seekers as of October 2023, forcing the city to pursue budget cuts in other areas. Chicago, meanwhile, has put aside $150 million to care for asylum seekers.
The Administration for Children and Families did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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