The Senate border funding bill released Sunday night allocates $1.4 billion in funding for nonprofit organizations helping migrants who enter the country illegally.
Page 67 of the 370-page bill contains a provision that states that “$1,400,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Federal Emergency Management Agency–Federal Assistance’ to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities through the Shelter Services Program.” The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 allocates $118 billion in total, including $48 billion to aid Ukraine during its war against Russia and nearly $16 billion to aid Israel during its conflict with Hamas until Dec. 31.
The Daily Caller first reported on Jan. 24 that billions would be provided to such nongovernmental organizations.
FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter program provides tens of millions of dollars every year for nongovernmental groups to help care for migrants, according to FEMA’s website. The program received $130 million in fiscal year 2023 to support migrants and the homeless.
The program’s funding is allocated to nonprofit organizations by a board of other private groups that include United Way, Catholic Charities USA. the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the Jewish Federations of North America and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.
Illegal migrants have streamed across the southern border in record numbers in recent years, with Border Patrol recording more than 2.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t believe the bill will address the situation at the southern border, saying Sunday evening that it will be “dead on arrival” in the House.
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