The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General will investigate the implementation of President Trump’s immigration order that temporarily halted immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries and refugees from coming to the country.
Illinois Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin both requested the investigation and the office confirmed it would investigate the roll out of the order Thursday. The inspector general is an independent investigative unit inside the Department of Homeland Security.
Duckworth said she’s pleased the inspector general will look into the matter and called it “discriminatory, ill-conceived and potentially unconstitutional.”
“Wasting taxpayer dollars on unwarranted and unjust detentions of lawful permanent residents is shameful and it is un-American,” she said. “The protections enshrined in our Constitution mean little if law enforcement agents feel empowered by the president to disregard them or if Americans are unwilling to defend them.
“The American people are relying on this investigation to help ensure that this president does not trample upon anyone’s constitutional rights or overreach through either malice or ignorance,” Duckworth said.
The senators requested the investigation look at how Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection prepared to implement the order and what they told the White House while the order was being developed; what guidance and training was given to Customs and Border Protection employees ahead of the order being implemented; and how the department and Customs and Border Protection determined what information to share publicly.
The senators also want to know what Customs and Border Protection officers were told about court orders blocking parts of the executive order and if officers violated those court orders.
The executive order handed down on Friday explicitly banned immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for at least 90 days, to give agencies time to ensure it can verify that immigrants are who they say they are. It also halved the amount of refugees the United States would accept per year and shut down the refugee program for the next four months while it’s reviewed.
Reports over the weekend indicated some refugees and immigrants were either detained or, in some cases, put back on planes and sent back to their country of origin after landing in the United States.
Thousands of people slammed Trump’s order as a “Muslim ban,” which he had promised during the campaign. Protesters again took to the streets in major cities and filled the baggage claim areas of major airports where lawyers worked to see those who had been detained.
Federal judges struck down multiple parts of the executive order during the weekend, though it’s unclear if the stays were being followed by Customs and Border Protection agents.
“Americans must insist that our immigration authorities act with transparency and in accordance with our Constitution,” Durbin said. “The detention of lawful permanent residents and others who have been thoroughly vetted by the U.S. government is unacceptable and raises serious questions about the development and implementation of last week’s executive order banning refugees and Muslims.”
