DHS Falsely Claimed a Database Tracked Separated Families, Watchdog Says
- Department of Homeland Security lied about ‘central database’
- Hundreds of children held in Border Patrol facilities too long
Recently arrived migrant families speak with volunteers at a charity center on June 21, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The Department of Homeland Security was unprepared for President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement policy and the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents, the agency’s watchdog concluded in a report released Tuesday.
Customs and Border Patrol held hundreds of children in short-term facilities longer than permitted and provided “inconsistent” or “incorrect” information to their parents, the DHS’s Office of Inspector General said in the report. The department falsely claimed there was a “central database” to keep track of separated parents and children, according to the review.