The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a scathing report criticizing agencies within the Biden-Harris administration for allowing released migrants without identification to board scheduled airline flights.
The DHS OIG, headed by Joseph V. Cuffari, released a heavily redacted report finding several DHS agencies did not fully assess risks associated with releasing migrants without identification into the United States and allowing them to travel on domestic flights. The report was rebuked by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
The report offered three recommendations to improve processes within the agencies to reduce the risks noted within the report. All three agencies failed to concur with the recommendations. Instead, they offered excuses for failing to detain the unidentified migrants and allowing them to board the domestic flights without identification.
OIG investigators requested information concerning how many migrants without identification were released into the United States by CBP and ICE during fiscal years 2021-2023 but were told that data was not recorded at the time of processing.
