Congress Needs to Stop Funding DHS’s Anti-Enforcement Boondoggles

During August, while Members of Congress are in their home districts holding townhall meetings and hearing from constituents, legislative staff are in the nation’s capital planning a strategy for funding the government for the next fiscal year (FY) starting October 1. A key part of those discussions involves how to secure the border. But lawmakers must also decide whether taxpayer funding should be prioritized on detention or releasing illegal aliens into the interior of the country with a range of social services.

Specifically, Congress will have to determine how to proceed with funding a relatively new immigration program known as the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) – a program that goes against the core mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CMPP provides taxpayer-funded services to illegal aliens in removal proceedings, awarding funds to nonprofit organizations to provide “mental health services; trafficking screening; legal orientation programs; cultural orientation programs; connections to social services; and departure planning and reintegration services for individuals returning to their home countries.”

First funded in the FY 2021 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), CMPP was initially provided $5 million, and that amount increased to $15 million in FY22, $20 million in FY23, and $15 million in FY24 – for a grand total of $55 million.

According to a recent House Judiciary Committee report entitled, Chauffeur at the Border, Concierge in the Interior: How the Biden Administration Rewards Illegal Aliens on the Taxpayers’ Dime, “zero CMPP participants had been removed from the United States.” The report states that the program is active in five cities, and as of December 31, 2023, CMPP had just 336 total participants, with 65 children and 271 adults.

That means taxpayers have provided $55 million to serve under 400 participants. If all funds were spent, DHS is spending upwards of $150,000 per participant.

CMPP is run by a DHS agency known as the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL). CRCL “supports the Department’s mission to secure the nation while preserving individual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law.” CRCL does not have any authority over immigration law.  According to the House Judiciary report, “CMPP is led by a DHS bureaucrat who previously called for limiting immigration detention, minimized the seriousness of illegal aliens’ criminal activity, and is connected with both a university think tank and one academic who have been described as anti-Israel.”

CRCL selected Church World Services (CWS) to serve as the Board Secretariat and Fiscal Agent, empowering it to delegate funding to subcontractors (i.e., open-borders allies) to provide health and trauma screenings, cultural orientation, legal services, social services and reintegration back to their home countries. While DHS claims that the program does not provide direct cash assistance to aliens enrolled, “the funds can be used flexibly to meet individual clients’ self-identified needs such as for food or utilities.”

As detailed by FAIR previously, Church World Services, along with over 60 other leftist open-borders groups, is a member of the “Defund Hate” campaign which seeks to defund ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and claims enforcement is a “structural barrier to positively transforming the immigration system.” In February 2019, CWS helped gather signatures on a petition to restrict funding for “detention camps and deportation agents” as the U.S. faced a potential government shutdown. CWS has also helped provide caravans of illegal aliens with fundraising, legal assistance, and media support. Its donors include open-borders groups such as George Soros’ Open Society, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

The same group that benefits from millions in taxpayer funding for the program also advocates for additional money from the federal trough. In fact, just recently, Church World Services issued a statement, “Fact Sheet: The Case Management Pilot Program,” arguing that the program “tests the hypothesis that welcoming arriving asylum seekers with dignity – recognizing their vulnerabilities and providing trauma-informed and linguistically responsive care to meet core needs – can play a vital role in building a more effective, more efficient, more humane asylum system.”

The group went on to urge Congress to increase funding for the effort, saying, “the program needs continued robust funding in FY24 to ensure program stability, serve new enrollees, and to monitor and understand impact and efficacy.” Church World Services has since taken down this fact sheet from its website, likely because the organization’s claims could not be validated.

DHS has failed to be transparent when it comes to CMPP, not providing the taxpaying public the ability to see behind the curtain or verify claims that Church World Services has made. Aliens who are ordered removed, but fail to leave, are still allegedly in the CMPP program. And, how much of the CMPP funds are going to basic needs of illegal aliens that everyday Americans do not get? The secrecy is clearly deliberate because the Biden-Harris administration is not interested in compliance or consequences for breaking our laws, but rather, furthering the goal of providing illegal aliens with free social services whether they abide by our immigration laws or not.

CMPP does not have any enforcement mechanism or measures in place as part of its program. Thus, it is not playing any vital role in protecting the public’s safety. It’s also unclear how aliens in the program are being held accountable, especially when they fail to comply with the government’s requirements to attend check-ins or court hearings. The House Judiciary Committee states in its report that DHS does not plan to evaluate CMPP’s effectiveness until September 2025 or 2026.

CMPP is not only a boondoggle, it is an affront to law-abiding citizens. Americans understand that rewarding illegality means you get more of it; it’s unfortunate that Biden-Harris-Mayorkas don’t see that. It’s time for Congress to stop funding this wasteful and pointless program. Instead of coddling those who broke our immigration laws and incentivizing more illegal immigration, Congress should come back from its month-long recess and put a priority on funding enforcement to better protect the safety and security of the American people.