Federal officials paid Baptist Children and Family Services nearly $183 million to help care for 2,400 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children for four months earlier this year at military facilities in Oklahoma and Texas, according to documents made public Wednesday by Judicial Watch.
“The cost to the American taxpayer was $86,846.34 per illegal alien child at Ft. Sill [in Oklahoma], for a total to $104,215,608 for 1,200 UACs from June 12 to October 18,” Judicial Watch said. “The bill also included $2,648,800 in compensation for 30 members of the BCFS ‘Incident Management Team,’ for a total to $88,293 per IMT member for the four-month period.”
The non-profit group received the documents Sept. 4 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request but only made them public Wednesday.
“The $77,914,178 to care for 1,200 children at Lackland Air Force Base [in Texas] amounted to a cost to the taxpayer of $64,928 per illegal alien child from May 18 to September 18. The Lackland bill included $20,000 for a ‘cable television screen/projector set up’ and 20 shower stalls at $1,000 each,” the group said.
The contract between the Texas-based Baptist social services organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was negotiated in 2013 and ends in 2016, according to Judicial Watch. In addition to basic medical and food supplies, the contract also provided for:
° “Recreational items will include board games, soccer balls, basket balls, jump ropes, bracelet making kits, yarn, puzzles, arts and crafts, decks of cards, and eye-hand coordination game sets. Reimbursement is requested for $180,000.”
° “Educational items will include … tempera paint, paint markers, paint brushes, easel brushes, art paper … Crayons, multicultural crayons … for $180,000.”
° “Laptop Kits … 100 Kits … 5 Laptops per kit – $500 per kit … $200,000.”
° “VOIP Phone Kits … 80 kits … 10 cell phones per kit with International call capabilities and radio … $160,000”
The 2,400 children were part of a wave of illegal immigrants of an estimated 70,000 who crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. beginning in 2012 and accelerating into 2013.
As the Washington Examiner reported earlier this year, most of the immigrants came from Central American countries like Honduras and Nicaragua.
They were escorted from their homes to the border by “Coyotes” who were paid about $3,500 per child by their parents.
Go here to read the documents.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
