Three Republican lawmakers are probing the Biden administration over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official’s ethics regarding her role in approving agency contracts, according to a Tuesday letter first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina asked that the Biden administration provide documents showing ICE Assistant Director for the Office of Immigration Program Evaluation Claire Trickler-Mcnulty’s commitment to ethics, including financial documents and personnel forms, according to the letter. Requests for contract approvals at ICE involving the opening or closure of detention facilities and the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program require the approval of Trickler-McNulty, as well as then-ICE Deputy Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations Peter Berg, according to the May 12, 2021 agency memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF. (RELATED: ICE Detention Centers Have Thousands Of Empty Beds Despite Record Illegal Immigration)
“The E.O.’s requirements buttressed the existing ethical standards which require federal employees to act impartially and to avoid even the appearance of acting otherwise,” the lawmakers wrote. “Ethics guidance advises employees that they should not act on a matter if a reasonable person, with knowledge of the circumstances, could legitimately question the employee’s impartiality. Compliance with ethical standards is paramount to maintain the public’s trust, and transparency is essential to an effective government ethics program.”
The three Republican lawmakers sent a letter on Sept. 26 to ICE Acting Director Patrick J. Lechleitner, asking that he provide documents about Trickler-McNulty’s role and her work with the agency.
In an Aug. 10 letter, the House Homeland Security Committee raised concerns to the acting ICE chief regarding a sole source contract awarded in March 2021 to Endeavors for migrant housing and monitoring of illegal immigrants. The inspector general found that ICE “did not adequately justify the need” for the contract, which spent nearly $17 million on hotel rooms and migrant services that were largely unused, according to the inspector general’s findings.
The committee’s inquiry centered around former Biden administration official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, who Trickler-McNulty previously worked under, according to the letter, which identified her as playing a leading role in awarding ICE contracts.
Screenshot: Video//Migration Policy Institute
“As a San Antonio faith-based organization, we are not part of the approval process for any federal contracts, nor do we have insight into that process. Instead, we remain focused on providing compassionate care to people in crisis. Endeavors worked in close collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) during their review. As delineated in last year’s report, ICE maintained that the awards were handled properly,” Endeavors previously told the DCNF in a statement regarding the contract.
Before joining the Biden administration, Trickler-McNulty served as a regional director for Legal Services at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization that seeks to shield illegal immigrant children from deportation that is funded by left-wing groups.
KIND received $115,000 in funding from the left-wing megadonor George Soros’ Open Society Foundations between 2018 and 2020, according to the grantmaking group’s website. Additionally, between 2018 and 2019, the group received more than $25,000,000 in subcontracts from the Vera Institute of Justice, a group that advocates against immigration detention and has labeled federal immigration enforcement authorities a “threat to civil liberties,” according to USASpending.gov.
“On his first day in office, President Biden signed an Executive Order (E.O.) implementing additional ethics commitments for appointees. The E.O. included a two year prohibition on participating in particular matters with former employers or clients,” the lawmakers wrote in Tuesday’s letter, which was addressed to McNulty, the acting ICE director and a top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ethics official.
ICE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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