Inspector General: DHS Lost Track of 177,000 Illegals

There were 177,000 cases where newly arrived illegal migrants gave fake addresses to the Border Patrol when they were arrested, making it nearly impossible to find them later and deport them, the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said, the Washington Times reported.

This represents nearly 20% of all the illegal migrants who have crossed the border, according to the report, illustrating the chaos that has taken place due to the Biden administration's immigration policies.

In some cases, the address given by the migrants was undecipherable or there was not an address recorded.

Another tactic migrants use, according to the inspector general, is to share fake addresses among themselves when they realize agents accept it, with the same false address used more than 500 times in some cases.

"On average, DHS releases more than 60,000 migrants into the United States each month. ICE must be able to locate migrants to enforce immigration laws, including to arrest or remove individuals who are considered potential threats to national security," the inspector general said. "The notable percentage of missing, invalid, or duplicate addresses on file means DHS may not be able to locate migrants following their release into the United States."

Agents told the inspector general that the surge of migrants has made it difficult to make sure they have correct addresses, especially since agents are under orders to release migrants even if they do not give an address.

Investigators checked the early stages of the border surge during the Biden administration, from March 2021 to August 2022, and found Homeland Security caught and released some 1.2 million migrants.

The audit then looked at a subset of 981,671 releases and found 177,000 cases where the address given was false, or where no address was even recorded. These do not include cases where the migrants lied, or have moved to a different address from the one they gave.

The audit urged Homeland Security to come up with a plan to deal with migrants released without valid addresses, and to have ICE officers attempt to validate the addresses they have been given.

Homeland Security rejected all of the recommendations, blaming Congress for a broken immigration system and said the inspector general's report was unrealistic.

"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 department said.