On what was the Biden Administration Department of Veteran Affairs focused? Apparently, illegals rather than veterans, at least in part, as was recently revealed by President Donald Trump’s Veteran Affairs Secretary, Doug Collins, during a recent podcast about the state of the VA when he took it over.
Those comments from VA Secretary Collins came during an interview with Andrew Wilkow of the Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM Patriot. In that interview, a clip of which went viral on Wednesday, February 19, the new VA secretary revealed that, once he was put in charge of the VA earlier in February, he found instances of the VA’s time being used to “process health applications and stuff” for illegal immigrants.
Wilkow, broaching the subject, asked the former longtime Republican US Congressman from Georgia if the VA was turned into an illegal immigrant-focused agency, at least in part. He asked, “Did the VA, under the previous administration, move resources away from Veteran Care into benefits for illegals… Did it happen, or are we going to look into it?”
Replying to Wilkow, Collins told him that he had discovered VA time and energy had been redirected into helping illegal immigrants. He said, “I think what we’ve found…not maybe much invested, but — We actually took time away from what I’ll call Veteran Care to process health applications and stuff, is what we’ve seemed to find, and we’re still looking into this. That’s going to stop.”
Chiming back in, Wilkow added, “I mean, I know they weren’t putting illegals in Walter Reed —.” Clarifying, VA Secretary Collins responded by telling him , “No, no, no, but there was a use of resources that were going to help process this mass claim. It could be better directed.”
Further clarifying, Wilkow noted that illegal immigrants weren’t getting medical procedures from VA hospitals. However, he then asked if VA “manpower may have been used” to help illegal immigrants. Collins told him that that was the case. He said, “Yeah, that’s what we’ve seen so far.” Watch Collins here:
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Collins has been a consistent advocate of VA reform and cutting out the waste in the system. For example, in a post just a few days after the November election, he said, “The system is broken and our veterans pay the price. We have to put them first. Why does a veteran have to drive 80 miles to see a doctor when they already have trouble seeing to start with? @realDonaldTrump will drain the swamp and make America WIN again.”
In another recent post, he sounded off on the use of pride flags at the VA and noted that it would be focused on veterans, not leftist causes, saying, “The American Flag binds all of us who have worn the uniform. We will no longer be showing pride flags at the VA. Instead, we will be flying these flags for the rest of this Administration and continue to put Veterans First.”
Similarly, in a quote tweet of a post from the “Libs of TikTok” X account about the VA allowing patients to select “non-binary” as a gender identity on paperwork forms, Collins said that such things need to be cut out and he is already finding much that needs to be fixed and replaced. He said, “Four days on the job and finding lots that needs to be fixed. Thanks for flagging!”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video