The top watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) failed to test migrants before transferring, transporting and releasing migrants from ICE detention facilities – a clear violation of the department’s COVID-19 policy.
“We identified numerous instances where ERO could not provide evidence that single adults, family units, and [unaccompanied children] were tested for COVID-19 before transport on domestic commercial flights,” the report, authored by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at DHS, found.
The watchdog noted that “without clear COVID-19 testing policies and controls in place to enforce these policies, ERO may transport COVID-19–positive migrants on domestic commercial flights.” The report said the failed policy “risk[ed] exposing other migrants, ERO staff, and the general public to COVID-19.”
As it relates to COVID-19 testing for unaccompanied minors, the OIG report acknowledged that while ICE, CBP, and HHS signed a memorandum of agreement in March 2021 outlining interagency coordination, that agreement “does not define which entity, if any, is responsible for administering COVID-19 tests to [unaccompanied children.]”
In a letter dated April 1, 2021, DHS’ chief medical officer, Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, wrote in a memo to then-acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson that the prevalence of coronavirus’ alpha variant “necessitates an immediate change to the testing approach of unaccompanied children in our custody.”
“Effective immediately, all [unaccompanied children] should be tested prior to transport to Health and Human Services (HHS) facilities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should transport [unaccompanied children] in COVID-19 positive and negative cohorts,” the letter, included in the OIG report, reads. Gandhi also noted that a lack of beds in HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities resulted in an increased number of migrant children held at CBP facilities and increased time in custody. “Therefore, the risk of COVID-19 transmission increases.”
Yet the watchdog found that while DHS’ chief medical officer had recommended that ICE and CBP test unaccompanied children, neither entity ensured that unaccompanied children were tested for COVID before they were transported.
“Instead, ERO officials deferred testing responsibility for [unaccompanied children] to HHS,” the inspector general wrote.
And while ERO officials stated that COVID-19-positive unaccompanied minors would not be transported on commercial flights, officials “did not record which [unaccompanied children] HHS tested for COVID-19.” Instead, they relied on “word of mouth to determine which [unaccompanied children] were COVID-19–positive and –negative.”
The inspector general also found that while DHS’ Office of the Chief Medical Officer initially asserted that HHS-contracted healthcare providers at CBP facilities test all unaccompanied children for COVID-19 before transport to HHS facilities, HHS later clarified that its contractors test unaccompanied minors “in only five of the nine U.S. Border Patrol sectors along the southwest border.” DHS’ senior medical officer later confirmed this information, according to the DHS OIG report. Contractors in Texas sectors Big Bend and Laredo Sectors, as well as California’s San Diego and El Centro sectors did not test accordingly.
Recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for U.S. and non-citizen travelers have evolved throughout the pandemic. In December 2020, the CDC recommended COVID-19 testing for all travelers 1 to 3 days before a flight. More than a year later, the CDC updated its guidance to recommend COVID-19 testing 1 to 3 days before a domestic flight for non-vaccinated travelers, following the nationwide vaccination rollout in April…
Read More: DHS watchdog: Migrants weren’t tested for COVID before transport on domestic commercial flights