Watchdog: U.S. unprepared for ‘zero tolerance’ policy
WASHINGTON — Immigration officials were not prepared this summer to manage the consequences of a “zero tolerance” policy at the Southwest border, which resulted in the separation of nearly 3,000 children from their parents, Homeland Security’s watchdog said in a report made public on Tuesday.
The resulting confusion along the border led to misinformation among separated parents who did not know why they had been taken from their children or how to reach them, longer detention for children at border facilities meant for short-term stays, and difficulty in identifying and reuniting families.
And backlogs at ports of entry may have pushed some into illegally crossing the U.S-Mexico border, the report found.
While the Trump administration had been criticized for the policy, the criticism previously came mostly from political opponents and not from independent, nonpolitical investigators.
Investigators with Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General compiled the report after speaking with about 50 immigration employees, plus 17 detainees and parents who had been separated from their children and later released.
They also reviewed documents and data. Homeland Security is the umbrella department for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Homeland Security officials say the report illustrates how difficult it is to enforce broken and poorly written immigration laws. The inspector general, they said, wrongly mixed up what happens to migrants caught crossing illegally between borders with migrants who come to legal ports of entry seeking asylum.
Illegally crossing the U.S. border had already been a criminal charge, but authorities had previously avoided large-scale family separation. But the Trump administration has made curbing immigration a major focus, working to harden what administration officials say are lax laws.
In May, officials began criminally prosecuting anyone caught crossing the border illegally. Children were separated from their parents as the adults went through criminal proceedings.
The move prompted international outrage and President Donald Trump eventually signed an execu- tive order stopping the separations. A lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of parents, and a judge ordered the families reunited. That process is ongoing, though the government has said it has reunited all eligible parents with children.
Children are only supposed to be held for 72 hours before being transferred to the custody of officials with Health and Human Services, which manages the care of migrant children and must adhere to strict policies governing their welfare. But, at least one child was held for 25 days in a Border Patrol facility.
During the weeklong period of fieldwork by the inspector general’s office, the average time children spent in a Border Patrol facility was 65 hours — but one child remained for 12 hours. The delay meant Border Patrol officers couldn’t focus on their work.
“Instead of patrolling and securing the border, officers had to supervise and take care of children,” the report said.
Immigration officials also struggled to identify, track and reunify families because agency systems were not properly integrated, according to the report.