United Way Worldwide is facing a Wednesday deadline to turn over records and information sought by congressional lawmakers looking into the administration of a federal program intended to provide food, housing and transportation to migrants processed at the southern border.
The House Judiciary Committee’s request follows a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General’s probe that determined some of the money entrusted to United Way and other nonprofits under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) was unaccounted for or in some cases misspent on migrants who had not been cleared through Customs and Border Patrol.
The records request was outlined in a May 24 letter to United Way CEO Angela Williams signed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and members Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Tom McClintock (R-California). In their letter, the three cited House rules authorizing the committee to conduct oversight of DHS programs.
United Way has served as administrator and fiscal agent of the EFSP program since legislation creating an EFSP National Board was enacted in 1983, a FEMA spokesperson said Monday. The board includes representatives of United Way as well as five other nonprofits – the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, Jewish Federations of North America, National Council of Churches, and The Salvation Army. All have voted annually since the program’s inception to confirm United Way’s continuation as the administrator responsible for maintaining program documentation and approving the disbursement of grant money to them and other nonprofit subrecipients.
Omoiye Kinney, a spokesperson for United Way, confirmed receipt of the House Judiciary Committee letter but told The NonProfit Times the organization would have no further comment at this time. The other nonprofits on the board indicated they had not received any such letter except for the National Council of Churches, which did not respond to inquiry from The NonProfit Times.
Among the records sought are receipts detailing the total dollar amount of EFSP grant money received, a list of all other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that received money, and the dollar amount and numbers of airline tickets purchased to fly migrants to other parts of the United States. The lawmakers also want United Way to document policies and procedures in place to ensure federal dollars aren’t being used for migrants who are ineligible by virtue of not having been processed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
The lawmakers wrote: “While Americans suffer the consequences of chaos at the southwest border caused by the Biden Administration, the United Way and dozens of local charities and governments are receiving millions of taxpayer dollars to provide free food, lodging, and transportation for illegal aliens to be released anywhere they want in the United States.” The congressmen asserted that 2 million migrants have been released into the U.S. out of more than 5 million who crossed into the country since President Joseph Biden took office, which was widely expected to increase following last month’s expiration of the Title 42 public health measure that expanded border agents’ authority to turn away asylum seekers deemed at risk for carrying COVID-19.
The letter to United Way arrived a day after Gooden issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to his fellow Judiciary Committee members excoriating “activist groups, social justice organizations, and charitable and religious organizations” that he accused of “operating as resettlement agencies to secretly transport and lodge undocumented migrants” at taxpayer expense.
A total $715 million has been awarded to the EFSP National Board since 2019, according to a FEMA spokesperson. The recently released DHS probe was focused specifically on $110 million in humanitarian relief funds appropriated to EFSP under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, of which $80.6 million — about 73% — had been directed to 25 local nonprofits in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas when the DHS began its audit in September 2021. According to information in the Inspector General’s report, investigators reviewed $12.9 million of this funding and found that $7.4 million, or 58%, lacked supporting documentation or had otherwise gone to recipients who didn’t have a DHS encounter record and were therefore ineligible.
Of the six nonprofits on the EFSP National Board contacted by The NonProfit Times, only the American Red Cross chose to offer an additional comment. “Every day around the world, people make the difficult decision to leave their homes – and their countries – with the hope of finding a safer place to live and hope for a better future,” American Red Cross spokesperson Nicole Maul said via a statement. “At the American Red Cross, we believe that every human deserves to be safe and healthy regardless of citizenship status.”
