It appears that a $350 million dollar appropriation for purposes of “Migration and Refugee Assistance” managed to slip inside the coronavirus stimulus package.

Populist commentator Ryan Girdusky first reported on the hidden boondoggle as the legislation was being prepared for a Senate vote Wednesday night. It’s one of several unrelated pork planks in the massive $2 trillion stimulus that was able to slip in without the scrutiny of Republican senators.

Sources on the Hill are telling me the #coronavirus bill will include $350 million for refugee and migration resettlement pic.twitter.com/yjPqtdG6Aq

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 26, 2020

The proposal to enrich refugee resettlement contractors appears to have migrated into the legislation originally introduced by Mitch McConnell from Nancy Pelosi’s rivaling proposal. The Speaker of the House had temporarily derailed the stimulus package by introducing a plan of her own, but from the looks of it, she’s getting a crucial element of the left-wing social agenda Democrats have tried to tie to the stimulus with the refugee resettlement package.

Florida’s Matt Gaetz appears to be one of the few members of Congress to question the totally unrelated refugee giveaway in the moment of legislative urgency.

Gaetz: Why Would We Have $350 Million for Migrants and Refugees Before We Restore the Economic Condition of Every American? https://t.co/kMISTkUDWZ

— Cassandra Fairbanks 🕊⏳ (@CassandraRules) March 26, 2020

Nominal charitable and non-profit entities have gamed and rigged the American refugee resettlement process for years, enriching themselves to the tunes of tens of millions of dollars if not more on the taxpayer dime. Migration skeptics have long questioned the utility of such an arrangement, pointing out that spending hundreds millions of dollars to resettle people in the United States could be used to far greater effect in providing relief for displaced peoples closer to their homes countries.

Existing refugee resettlement programs have continued in spite of the raging coronavirus pandemic. More than 3,000 people have been resettled in the United States since January, when the disease began surfacing on the radar of the federal government.

The Washington D.C. Swamp appears to have succeeded in utilizing one of its oldest cards in this instance, attaching a totally unrelated refugee proposal to a sorely needed economic relief package. It’s likely the proposal would have shot down on other circumstances, but congressional Democrats ultimately proved tactful enough to advance their preferred and entirely unrelated special interest in a moment of great legislative urgency.