A religious-based charity has received nearly $18 million in federal grants to help refugees and immigrant children who entered the country illegally since Donald Trump was elected president, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has received nine federally-funded awards since Nov. 8, all of which came from the the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), USAspending.gov data shows.
Seven of those – worth over $13 million – were awarded under the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program, and the remaining two – worth $4.5 million – were used to helped refugees.
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Meanwhile, LIRS received $25 million in federal funds in the four months following former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection, data shows. Both HHS and the State Department awarded those grants.
LIRS took another $29 million and $25 million over the same time period during the following two years.
But funds awarded to the charity this time last year dropped significantly. LIRS, in fact, received $1,565 less between November 2015 to March 2016 compared to that same time period since Trump’s election.
LIRS ultimately raked in $60 million total for fiscal 2016 – more than any other year during Obama’s second term, and received $220 million total over his final four years in office. HHS and the State Department awarded each grant to help refugees and unaccompanied children.
This report, by Ethan Barton, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
