Newly uncovered emails between Department of Homeland Security officials and journalists show the agency tasked with protecting U.S. border and domestic security admitted it is not tracking illegal immigrants after they were released from federal custody into the interior of the country.
In the emails obtained by the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust in a Freedom of Information Act request, one DHS official told a Washington Post reporter off the record he could not say how many immigrants are settling in Northern states via border state busing programs because the agency does not track those released from their custody.
“Are more people deciding to settle in DC/New York or, more recently, Chicago as a result of the program where they might have previously been inclined to remain in Texas or Arizona?” the reporter asked in a September 2022 email reviewed by Just the News.
“Off the record, that’s hard for us to say because they’re getting on those buses after they’re already out of our custody,” the official answered.
“That said, anecdotally including what I hear from other reporters, it does appear that word is spreading and they are looking for those buses for the free transportation. I’ve also heard many people are getting off along the way, so they’re using the buses for as long as it is convenient, but again, because they are out of our custody by then, it is hard for us to be able to answer that,” the official added.
Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said the emails are fresh proof that Homeland officials know the consequences of their policies on border security.
“DHS attempts to claim they are not responsible for the crisis at the border and lack any means to solve the fast-developing disaster,” he said. “At the same time, they admit to friendly members of the media off the record that they fail to perform even the most basic of functions.
”The Biden Administration came into office promising a return to normalcy, unprecedented transparency, and respect for the rule of law. These documents provide further evidence that, when it comes to our borders, they are 0-for-3,” he added.
DHS did not respond to inquiries from Just the News about the facts expressed by the official nor about the agency’s standard practice for tracking immigrants after they are released into the country.
Brandon Judd, a border patrol agent and the president of the National Border Patrol Council union that represents border agents, told Just the News on Wednesday that he has been warning for years that the Biden administration stops tracking illegal aliens once they are released from custody and that it is one of the gravest security concerns the president’s policies have created.
The security threats also extend beyond terror threats. Early this month, federal authorities nabbed an Afghan national on the terror watchlist on after he crossed the southern border illegally into California. Last weekend, a 15-year-old illegal Venezuelan immigrant, Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, was arrested in New York for firing a gun at a security guard and police in Times Square, reportedly hitting a tourist in the incident. The police caught up to him in Yonkers after he and his mother fled the city in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Rivas-Figueroa was charged as an adult and refused to answer any questions at his arraignment.
On Wednesday, an immigrant was arrested in a Queens mall robbery where he allegedly attacked the security guard, according to reports. The immigrant charged in the crime, Darwin Gomez-Izquiel, was previously detained in relation to another Times Square attack on New York police officers, but was released without bail at the time.
