(NewsNation) — A new report shows the Department of Homeland Security has lost track of thousands of migrants.
More than 7,300 migrants crossed the southern border yesterday, and Customs and Border Protection is exceeding capacity with more than 23,000 people in custody. As the latest migrant wave is surging, a new report shows a clear picture of the department’s ability to track people once they arrive.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General issued a scathing report showing the agency lost track of 177,000 migrants and doesn’t appear to be actively trying to keep tabs on them.
The report focused on data collected on migrants released under Title 8 between March 2021 and August 2022. It showed 80% of addresses were recorded at least twice in an 18-month period, and 54,000 addresses were left blank.
Of those addresses that were entered, locations included car dealerships, bus stations, churches and restaurants.
According to the report, once a migrant is released from the Border Patrol’s custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement may not know their whereabouts until they check in with their local field office or notify ICE of an address change.
But at least 28% of migrants don’t check in with ICE.
The gaps in reporting illustrate issues with the vetting process that thousands of migrants go through.
Former Homeland Security Department advisor Charles Marino said the gaps create a problem for ICE and other agencies.
“We don’t know where these people are. They’re not thoroughly vetted regarding their backgrounds. So this is a huge problem,” said Marino. “It’s undercutting every agency that has a responsibility to protect the homeland, because now you’ve got agencies like the FBI, scrambling around trying to find all of these people, because they don’t specifically know what kind of threat these people pose to the safety and security of the American public.”
Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said releasing migrants always poses a risk.
“When you have so many people coming into the country, you don’t know their intentions, and an administration that doesn’t care about the security of our nation’s borders, it’s always going to be a risk,” he said. “It’s always going to be a risk because you don’t know enough about these individuals that you’re releasing.”
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement responding to the report.
“The IG ignores legal and operational constraints that make it impossible for the Department to implement its recommendations. The report also excludes several recent DHS improvements to how we track and update noncitizen addresses across agencies,” the statement read.
Arizona Congressman Juan Ciscomani, a Republican, laid the blame for the situation at the Biden administration’s feet.
“Headline after headline of shocking, record-breaking numbers and concerning reports have surfaced over the last two years, and the Biden administration has yet to do anything substantive to secure our border. While I’m glad to see an investigation conducted, it only reinforces what Arizonans have been seeing, and living, for years — our border is abused and broken,” he said.
The report comes as a House subcommittee is preparing to hold hearings Thursday regarding terrorists entering through the southern border.
The office identified four recommendations for DHS to follow to better track immigrants who are released into the country.
DHS rejected all of them due to impracticality, saying that despite the current status of the immigration system, the department has improved how noncitizens are processed and vetted.