The government funding package for this year, released this week, includes more than $5 billion in welfare for refugees.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul urged his constituents via social media to contact their senators and vote against the budget bill that contains the refugee welfare provision. “We need to send a message, loud and clear,” Paul stated. “Call your senators and tell them to vote NO on this reckless spending spree.”
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) seconded Paul’s call for opposition. “And when we vote against this minibus containing the $5 billion refugee welfare program, some will say ‘why aren’t you supporting the President?’” Massie wrote.
Paul cited concerns about welfare fraud in Minnesota as justification for his stance. “After the staggering level of welfare fraud exposed in Minnesota, why on Earth would ANY Republican vote to fund more refugee welfare programs?” he asked. “This is DC insanity at its finest.”
The Minnesota scandal led to Governor Tim Walz abandoning plans for reelection after federal investigators uncovered allegations that non-citizens defrauded welfare programs by billions.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested a coordinated effort by Democrats to expand voter registration through illegal immigration and welfare enrollment. “One hundred percent, this was a coordinated effort to get more Democrat voters into these states,” Comer told a reporter.
Senator Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is leading congressional investigations into the alleged fraud. He has introduced legislation to end refugee welfare programs, arguing that sponsors of refugees should be responsible for their costs. “If you sponsor them, they’re your responsibility,” Paul said. “It’s charitable to give your own money. It’s not charitable to take someone else’s money.”
The $5 billion is included in a 1,059-page budget bill at page 246 under the heading “Refugee and Entrant Assistance.” The allocation amounts to exactly $5,163,956,000.
The spending is authorized by multiple federal laws, including the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998, and sections of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
The budget bill totals $1.2 trillion, with the House expected to pass it soon.