(RightWing.org) – Illegal immigration is becoming a major crisis as the Biden administration fails to take control of our borders and a seemingly endless flood of migrants pours into the US. Even Democrat politicians are now protesting at the cost of looking after the newcomers and the impact they’re having on cities. But are some people exploiting the situation for profit? A Chicago TV station is trying to investigate the cost of caring for migrants — and it’s struggling to get the information.
In August 2022, a Kansas company, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, billed the City of Chicago $57 million for staffing migrant shelters in the city. Local news station NBC 5 wondered exactly what the city was getting in return for all that money, and started to investigate. Initially, the city cooperated; the network was given two invoices showing what shelter staff were being paid, and the figures were staggering. A nurse at the High Ridge YMCA shelter was paid more than $20,000 for a single week last December — even allowing for overtime, almost $200 an hour. A shelter manager got $14,000 the same week. The city also handed over a spreadsheet showing that the $57 million had covered 498 payment vouchers.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said the amount shelter staff seem to be earning is “disgusting” and “outrageous,” and called for an immediate investigation. NBC 5 felt the same way and submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for records related to the contract with Favorite Healthcare Staffing. However, the city has now rejected that request, claiming the work involved in redacting the records — although why they need redactions isn’t clear — “outweighs the public interest in the information.”
City aldermen are also interested in that information, though. Alderman Scott Waguespack admitted he and his colleagues haven’t been tracking exactly how the city is spending all that money, and said that needs to change. He said that if the city is willing to accept federal money to spend on migrants, it needs to account for every cent of that money. Unfortunately, in a city famous for corrupt city politics, local leaders seem to be blocking NBC 5’s attempt to find out exactly what taxpayer money is being spent on.
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