The Office of Inspector General (IG) reported this week that the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) allowed over 177,000 illegals over a 16-month period to enter the country by giving false post-release addresses, rendering it nearly impossible to locate and deport them later.
The report reviewed “981,671 migrant records documented by USBP from March 2021 through August 2022” and found that one out of five illegal immigrant address records were either “missing, invalid, or not legitimate residential locations.”
According to the audit, those bogus addresses were a result of the USBP not being able to accurately obtain and record information, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “does not have sufficient coordination or authority to administer compliance with address requirements.” The IG added that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “did not always validate addresses for migrants prior to release into the United States because it did not have the resources necessary to validate and analyze migrants’ post-release addresses.”
To make matters worse, 54,663 reviewed records were blank or contained no address. 26,093 of the 981,671 were not valid for mail delivery of court documents or for tracking purposes. Three percent of the addresses given and reported by USBP agents were undeliverable based on the Informatica Address Verification service.
USBP policy didn’t help either. “In September 2022, USBP issued guidance via email to instruct agents to enter ‘FAILED TO PROVIDE ADDRESS.’… Almost half of the records with no address obtained occurred in 6 months, from March through August 2021, under prosecutorial discretion releases.”
Illegal immigrants also shared addresses among themselves once they found out agents would accept that.
The audit shared:
Based on our analysis, 80 percent (790,090 of 981,671) of addresses were recorded at least twice during an 18-month period, some of which were provided by families upon release. More than 780 of these addresses were used more than 20 times. These families provided addresses that may be unsafe or have overcrowded living conditions based on multiple migrants using the same address. For example, DHS released 7 families, comprising 12 adults and 17 children, to a single-family 3-bedroom New Jersey home in a 70-day period.
We also identified 7 addresses that were recorded more than 500 times, some of which were other Federal agency locations and charities. USBP agents may input charity addresses. However, charities only serve as temporary residences, not migrants’ final destinations.
The inspector general identified that at least “8,600 migrant release addresses” were associated with 25 charities. Illegal immigrants are required to update any address changes once they arrive at their final destination in the United States.
According to the report, interviewed agents stated “they did not record and validate all addresses because the sectors had to focus more on transferring migrants out of custody within legal time limits, dictated by policy, during upticks in illegal border crossings. During the audit period, USBP “apprehended more than 1.3 million migrants illegally entering the United States at the Southwest border. This equates to between 43,000 to 106,000 apprehensions per month, or more than 2,000 per day.”
The report offered four recommendations, including creating a plan to improve the controls validating migrants’ post-release U.S. addresses.
However, as The Washington Times reported:
Homeland Security rejected all of the recommendations. The department’s liaison said they believe they have taken some steps to create better coordination, and are already doing what they can to validate addresses.
Besides, said Jim H. Crumpacker, the liaison, requiring ICE to validate where immigrants who are in the country illegally end up would be a poor use of resources.
“The burden is on the noncitizen to provide a valid address,” he said.
He said ICE needs to focus its resources on people “who pose a public safety threat.”
The audit results and response from the DHS only amplify the fact that the Biden administration has no desire to protect our borders or stop the millions of illegal aliens entering the country without consequence.
The report also reinforces why border states are forced to implement their own plans, such as Texas’ Operation Lone Star, which, according to a recent press release, helps “secure the border; stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas; and prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal activity between ports of entry.”
To learn more about the immigration crisis and what can be done about it, click here.
