DHS has limited ability to accurately track migrants’ post-release addresses: IG report

The Department of Homeland Security has limited ability to accurately and effectively track the addresses of migrants after they cross U.S. borders and are released into the country, according on a federal watchdog report released Monday.

"U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) cannot always obtain and does not always record migrant addresses, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not always validate migrant addresses prior to migrant release into the United States," DHS's Inspector General's Office said in the report, released on the 22nd anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks. 

The office said it arrive at such conclusions based on a review of 981,671 migrant records documented by USBP from March 2021 through August 2022.

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The watchdog office also found addresses for over 177,000 migrant records were either missing, invalid for delivery or not legitimate residential locations.

"In addition to migrants not providing U.S. release addresses, DHS faced several challenges hindering its ability to record and validate migrant addresses as required," the 35-page report also states.

"USBP did not accurately and effectively capture valid addresses, in part due to the large number of migrants apprehended, as well as its limited coordination with ICE and its limited authority to administer compliance with address requirements. ICE also did not have adequate resources to validate and analyze migrants’ post-release addresses."

A department spokesperson later told Just the News: “Our immigration system is broken and outdated and Congress needs to fix it. Even under those outdated laws, the department has improved how non-citizens are processed and vetted. Individuals seeking to come to the United States are screened by DHS and our intelligence and counter-terror partners to prevent anyone who poses a threat from entering the country. 

The spokesperson said the inspector general "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."