DHS Report: Migrants Released With Little Assessment

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) released a report on Thursday acknowledging that several agencies "did not fully assess risks" associated with releasing millions of illegal immigrants without ID into the interior of the U.S.

The heavily redacted report dated Sept. 30 details colossal lapses in judgment by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) following the haphazard release of millions of noncitizens onto domestic flights based on lax security protocol.

The report stated that according to federal law "noncitizens without ID are not admissible into the country and shall be detained," but that CBP and ICE are permitted to release noncitizens into the U.S. based on various circumstances.

Those circumstances included accepting self-reported biographical information, which they use to give the migrants immigration forms which are then used to board domestic flights.

"Neither CBP nor ICE could determine how many of the millions of noncitizens seeking entry in the United States each year entered without identification and whose self-reported biographic information was accepted," Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari said in the report.

"CBP and ICE immigration officers we interviewed, acknowledged the risks of allowing noncitizens without identification into the country, yet neither CBP nor ICE conducted a comprehensive risk assessment for these noncitizens to assess the level of risk these individuals present and developed corresponding mitigation measures," the report added.

Cuffari said that he had requested the DHS provide the number of noncitizens who did not have ID and were released into the U.S. from 2021-2023, but neither the CBP nor ICE were able to provide the information because they chose not to log into their system whether or not the migrants had identification.

To further exacerbate the problem, the TSA relied on data and background checks of noncitizens from the CBP and ICE to determine if a migrant passenger was a security risk.

"If CBP and ICE continue to allow noncitizens — whose identities immigration officers cannot confirm — to enter the country, they may inadvertently increase national security risks," the report concluded.

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