(RepublicanNews.org) – A report released by a government watchdog has found that Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) released 11,754 out of the 339,478 illegal aliens that should have been detained. The figures cover the fiscal year of 2022-2023.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General described how these illegal migrants were allowed to go on their way despite most being classed as “high flight risk”, and in 328 cases were classed as being “high risk” in terms of public safety. A further 813 were designated as posing a “medium risk” to public safety.
The watchdog went on to say that after taking a sample of records, it found that in more than 70% of cases, ICE did not include sufficient information to explain why they would release the high-risk alien into the U.S. interior. The report also found that ICE did not carry out its risk assessments in a consistent manner across the organization.
According to the report, one issue faced by ICE was a lack of oversight of the risk classification process. In years gone by, ICE had an Office of Detention and Policy and Planning, whose responsibility included risk assessment oversight. That office was disbanded in 2017, and its oversight responsibilities were not handed to another department. ICE agreed with the watchdog report that it should assign such a role to another office and implement “a formal policy and procedure” for the risk assessment process.
ICE, which has had to contend with record-high levels of illegal border crossing under the Biden-Harris administration, also came under fire in another report released by the watchdog in early June. The audit found that ICE did not have sufficiently effective processes for screening “noncitizens” trying to enter the country or for asylum seekers whose applications had been ongoing for extended periods of time. The report found that some Border Patrol staff failed to properly query all occupants of vehicles entering the U.S., with management ordering agents to only question the drivers to speed up the process.
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