Troubled Enforcement at Homeland Security

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report entitled “An Assessment of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fugitive Operations Team.”  The report is available on the DHS website, and is linked here.

The “Fugitive Operations Team” is charged with apprehending and removing noncitizens who have already had a formal order of removal entered against them, but who have failed to depart.  More than more than $204 million has been allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003.  Nevertheless, the report finds substantial problems in enforcement, and estimates that the  U.S. government cannot account for the whereabouts of over 600,000 of these noncitizens.  The OIG found that the apprehensions reported by the Office of Detention and Removal Operations did not accurately reflect the team’s activities and that the removal team could not determine the rate of removal of noncitizens classified as “fugitives.”

The report also found that the teams “have basic law enforcement training” and have “effective partnerships with federal, state and local agencies.”

Some of the main findings are summarized in an AP wire story.

-jmc