Democrats question DHS inspector general’s authority, report on border patrol morale

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and his May audit on law enforcement staffing challenges at the border quickly became the target of Democratic scrutiny at Tuesday’s House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs hearing. 

Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and colleagues questioned if Cuffari was fit for his current role. Members of the subcommittee expressed concern about several allegations against Cuffari, including his failure to notify Congress about deleted Secret Service messages related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, blocking or delaying oversight reports, and reported fear of retaliation among his staffers. 

“An inspector general who does not understand his own duties, who resists basic congressional oversight, who is deleting federal records, who is under investigation, and who has lost the faith of his workforce has no business serving,” Garcia said. 

Cuffari’s audit revealed that migrant traffic has outpaced staffing increases; between FY 2019 and 2022, the number of border patrol agents remained relatively stable while “average monthly encounters” with migrants more than doubled.

Of the approximately 9,0000 agents surveyed, 88% of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers felt their work locations are understaffed and under prepared for “migrant surges.” Meanwhile, 24% of personnel indicated that they plan to leave their job within the calendar year.

Using these and other metrics, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concluded that intensifying conditions at the southwest border are negatively impacting CBP and ICE employees' health and morale. However, Democrats on the subcommittee were quick to question the validity of the results. 

Garcia was quick to point out that the 9,000 agents surveyed accounted for 16% of the 57,000 law enforcement personnel who received the survey. Garcia then presented a poster board displaying language from the audit itself, indicating that the audit is “non-statistical” and cannot be extended to the entire population of CBP and ICE law enforcement.

“If you don't conduct statistical analysis, you aren’t going to get real results,” Garcia said. “We simply do not know if the data you relied upon is sufficient to support any of the findings of this report.”

He went on to cite the “most egregious flaw” in the audit, which he said was the failure to test the data’s reliability. To this, Cuffari said that though his office asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for reliable data, they did not receive it. 

Republicans quickly jumped to the audit’s defense. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said that anyone using common sense would know that both DHS agencies are experiencing low moral, given the difficult circumstances agents face.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) pointed to his own experience visiting the border when he backed up colleague Grothman’s assessment.

“These guys are deployed for quite some time in incredibly difficult circumstances,” Higgins said. “They love their country, they’re serving their country… but the longer they stay down there the more it impacts themselves, their family, their morale, their esprit de corps, their units.”

“I think it's obvious that this system of moving people down there has been detrimental to the health and wellbeing of our agents,” he added.

Turning away from the audit to Cuffari himself, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) cited a recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey of the DHS OIG, which Cuffari agreed is an important indicator of an agency's performance.

Of the OIG staff surveyed, 45% feel they can safely disclose suspected wrongdoing, Frost said, while 40% fear retaliation for such a disclosure, the latter of which Cuffari said he was not aware.

“I find this incredibly alarming… Inspectors general are meant to serve as a safe haven for whistleblowers,” Frost added. “How is a whistleblower supposed to trust your office when members of your office don’t even feel safe to report wrongdoing themselves?”

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) added that Cuffari is currently under investigation by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. When asked about the basis of that investigation, Cuffari said he would be happy to discuss it privately. 

While the investigation into Cuffari is ongoing, the conflict over how best to address the increase in migrants remains.