Biden Urged to Reveal Amount of Taxpayer Dollars Transferred from Veterans to Illegals

(LibertySociety.com) – The unabated flow of illegal migrants across the southern border of the United States has forced American taxpayers to foot the bill for their housing, shelter, and legal expenses. Republican lawmakers have demanded the Biden administration take action to curb the flow but have also worked to identify the various ways in which Americans are affected by the crisis. Senator Marsha Blackburn believes that taxpayer dollars are being diverted from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide healthcare for illegal migrants.

Back in December, Montana Senator Steve Daines accused the Biden administration of siphoning resources from the VA to provide healthcare to illegal migrants. The VA and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have had an arrangement for many years that allows ICE to use the VA’s Financial Service Center to process reimbursements to healthcare providers. However, the unprecedented number of illegal entries has undoubtedly pulled more resources than usual.

Senator Blackburn sent a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough on January 17, asking him for specifics on the amount of money intended for veterans’ benefits that has instead been spent to provide additional resources to illegal migrants. She made clear that she was not only asking about illegal migrants in ICE detention facilities, but all illegal migrants, even those who have been deported. Blackburn wrote that the $95 million used for the healthcare of illegal migrants in 2022 was intended to “support American veterans who bravely served this nation.” She noted that $74 million was used by ICE in 2021 to process medical claims and for non-agency referrals.

Blackburn also scolded the VA for its increasing backlog of processing 1,048,765 veterans’ claims. The average veteran waits around five months for the VA to process their claim. Blackburn is also interested in learning if the Biden administration specifically directed the VA to reallocate its services to provide for illegal migrants. Republicans also recently introduced legislation to block the use of VA resources for illegal migrants.