The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general launched an investigation this week to look at how two federal agencies have cared for immigrant detainees and employees amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The DHS Office of the Inspector General will examine how Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement managed facilities where immigrants are detained, according to an announcement posted on its website. The inspector general will also look at how CBP protected its 25,000 officers who work at ports of entry and 20,000 Border Patrol agents who work the land between those official crossing points.
Border Patrol agents told the Washington Examiner in March they expected to get hit by the coronavirus but had not been briefed on how the agency will continue its national security operations and whether that includes them having to report to work sick. Five Border Patrol agents who work in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California said the agency’s Washington and regional headquarters had done little to explain how they should protect themselves on the job beyond using basic personal protective equipment.
The auditors will also look at how ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers who arrest immigrants illegally residing within the United States and staff detention facilities nationwide cared for people in custody.
In late April, 26 Democratic senators asked DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate conditions inside ICE facilities, where more than 1,000 of the 28,000 detainees have tested positive for the coronavirus as of this week. Roughly 2,100 detainees have been tested.
ICE has not publicly disclosed the number of detainees that it has released since February, when cases started being confirmed in the U.S. Immigrant advocates and lawyers have sued and asked the agency to release elderly people and others with preexisting health conditions who are less likely to recover if they get the coronavirus. Because ICE detention facilities are set up like jails and prisons, the potential for any infectious disease to spread is high.
Cuffari’s new investigation comes days after President Trump fired the State Department inspector general, one of four terminated by the commander in chief since early April. In March, the Washington Post reported the DHS inspector general’s office had stepped back from its watchdog role. Cuffari’s predecessor, John Kelly, retired abruptly after being forced to rescind positive audits on the department’s response to disasters.
