Non-profit gets $530 MILLION to help with migrant children after hiring Biden transition official

The Texas nonprofit Family Endeavors was awarded its largest-ever contract in an effort to mitigate the massive influx of migrant children arriving at the southern border.

The $530 million no-bid contract was awarded after Family Endeavors hired Biden transition official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, Axios reported.

The nonprofit is aimed at helping vulnerable communities through crises. The group announced its hiring of Lorenzen-Strait on January 20 – the same day as Biden’s inauguration – and he took on the role of senior director for migrant services and federal affairs.

Lorenzen-Strait is a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official. He also advised the Biden-Harris transition team on Homeland Security policy and staffing.

President Joe Biden’s administration is scrambling to address the growing immigration crisis as recent numbers show more than 21,000 unaccompanied minors are in federal government custody.

Family Endeavors is part of that effort. The faith-based organization was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. 

Last month, Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as border czar, but she has since held no events related to the crisis or even taken the time to visit the border or Northern Triangle countries.

On Wednesday morning, Harris is expected to hold a virtual roundtable in her new role.

She will speak with experts on their assessments of the Northern Triangle region, which includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The vast majority of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are from these countries.

Notably, the vice president is not meeting with any border or immigration agents or officials on the matter, just a panel of ‘experts.’

Former Homeland Security officials who served under Trump say they are relieved Harris has taken a hands off approach at the border.

‘I’m glad she’s nowhere near the border,’ Trump-era acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner Mark Morgan told DailyMail.com during a panel discussion with the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.

‘Quite frankly,’ he continued, ‘I think if she does do what she should do as the anointed border czar, she’s just going to make the crisis even worse.’

Along with Morgan, former deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli and former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf joined the discussion with the conservative think tank where all three are visiting fellows.

Vice President Harris has received a slew of criticism for not yet visiting the southern border despite being put in charge of the crisis 21 days ago. President Biden has also not gone to the U.S.-Mexico border as he nears his third month in office. 

Morgan pointed to Harris’ lax immigration policies as a reason why it’s better she remain as uninvolved as possible. He noted she helped make California a so-called ‘sanctuary state’ when she was attorney general by refusing to work with federal authorities to turn over illegal immigrants in the state.

‘This is a former Senator Harris who during a congressional testimony referred to ICE as the KKK, she basically called ICE agents racists,’ Morgan bashed the vice president. ‘She’s gone further to say that ICE should be dismantled and start from scratch.’

Cuccinelli told DailyMail.com during the panel talk that no one in the administration wants to take ownership of the massive failure at the southern border.

‘This is a political hot potato within the administration,’ Cuccinelli said.

‘None of them want it,’ he added. ‘That’s why the president tossed it to the vice president, that’s why he hasn’t visited the border even though he has caused the problem. That’s why she won’t touch it, she won’t talk about it, she won’t go to the border, she won’t go anywhere near it.

Cuccinelli said those in the White House are ‘all more afraid of the radical left base than they are committed to solving the problem.’

‘By a longshot – it’s not even close,’ he insisted.

Biden has taken on a much more lax immigration approach than his predecessor – evident by a slew of Trump-critic DHS nominees the president announced Monday.

These policies, however, have quickly led to a humanitarian crisis as a record number of migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador arrive at the border every day – this includes nearly 20,000 unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody.

‘We told you so,’ Morgan said.

Wolf added that although Harris was put in charge of the border, the White House’s messaging as been all wrong, leading to concussion among the public and DHS and border officials and agents.

‘The administration needs to clear up who’s in charge,’ Wolf insisted. ‘Is it the DHS secretary, is it the White House, is it the vice president? Because I can tell you that the men and women in the field are also confused.’

‘I can’t tell you how many people that I’ve talked to at the department that has no idea who’s in charge,’ he said. ‘Who should they be listening to, who should they be taking direction from? They don’t know – and if they don’t know that is a problem.’

Biden announced Monday a series of new nominees who will lead the border and immigration effort. This includes tapping Tucson, Arizona police chief Chris Magnus to lead the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP).

Magnus has been vocal in his criticism of Trump and how he and one-time Attorney General Jeff Sessions handled immigration.

‘The harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and Mr. Sessions’s reckless policies ignore a basic reality known by most good cops and prosecutors,’ Magnus wrote in a 2017 op/ed. ‘If people are afraid of the police, if they fear they may become separated from their families or harshly interrogated based on their immigration status, they won’t report crimes or come forward as witnesses.’

Another appointee includes fellow anti-Trumper Ur Jaddou to head up the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

President Joe Biden released a sudden tweet on Monday defending Harris amid mounting criticism over her failure to visit the border and after GOP Senator John Cornyn questioned who was in charge in the White House.

‘When I served as Vice President, I asked to be the last person with the President before big decisions were made — and @VP is providing the same counsel to me,’ Biden wrote. ‘She’s the last voice in the room and never fails to speak the truth as we work to build our nation back better.’

He included a picture of the pair in discussion inside the Oval Office.