Under Cuffari, The DHS OIG Has Occasionally Confirmed Egregious Actions By Department Agents
DHS OIG Under Cuffari Found That The Trump Administration Forced Family Separation Illegally And Lied About It. “A government watchdog says the Trump administration, under its practice of separating families at the border, forced migrant parents to leave the U.S. without their children, contradicting claims by officials that parents were willingly leaving them behind. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General said in a report released Monday that it found at least 348 cases in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no records showing migrants wanted to leave their children in the U.S. It also found ‘some’ cases in which agency officials deported parents even while knowing they wanted to take their children with them. That contradicted assertions by senior DHS officials that parents were choosing to leave their children in the U.S. to stay with family or for other reasons while they were deported in 2017 and 2018 as the administration sought to enforce a hard-line approach to immigration enforcement.” [Associated Press, 5/24/21]
DHS OIG Under Cuffari Found That DHS Agents Acted Improperly Toward Protesters in Portland, Ore. “At a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said the report out this week found the agency ‘did not properly exercise its authority’ in Portland last summer. ‘DHS was unprepared to effectively execute cross-component activities in Portland,’ he said. ‘Specifically, not all officers had completed required training, had the necessary equipment, or used consistent uniforms, devices, and operational tactics.’” [Associated Press, 4/22/21]
However, These Efforts Have Been Few And Far Between For A Watchdog Agency—Cuffari Has Continued And Worsened A Concerning Trend Of Lacking Oversight Activity Coming From The DHS OIG
DHS OIG Has Been Incredibly Weakened Under Cuffari, Who Even Ducked Appearing Before Congress To Address These Concerns. “The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog division has been so weakened under the Trump administration that it is failing to provide basic oversight of the government’s third-largest federal agency, according to whistleblowers and lawmakers from both parties. DHS’s Office of the Inspector General is on pace to publish fewer than 40 audits and reports this fiscal year, the smallest number since 2003 and one-quarter of the agency’s output in 2016, when it published 143, records show. … At a time when DHS has morphed into an instrument for some of President Trump’s most ambitious domestic policies, the inspector general’s role calls for the office to exert rigorous oversight of the department’s $70 billion budget and 240,000 employees … But the agency’s authority and productivity have withered, and in the weeks before the coronavirus outbreak, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari ducked requests to appear on Capitol Hill for routine testimony, a decision congressional staffers describe as unprecedented.” [The Washington Post, 3/17/20]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Found Several Foundational Problems With DHS OIG’s Work Under Cuffari’s Leadership. “GAO’s report found that DHS OIG did not follow professional standards when conducting its investigations and lacks a strategic plan and a number of formal structures for managing responsibilities. GAO said DHS employees expressed concern about inaccurate information or facts in about 23 percent of reports issued by the inspector general’s office in fiscal year 2020.” [The Hill, 4/21/21]
Cuffari Regularly Delayed Or Even Squashed Investigations, Especially Those That Reflected Poorly On Former President Trump And His Administration
Cuffari Delayed Inquiry Into A Politically-Sensitive Complaint Lodged By A Former Intelligence Chief Until After The 2020 Election. “The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general blocked an inquiry into whether senior agency officials demoted an employee who criticized the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and a whistle-blower complaint obtained by The New York Times. The inspector general, Joseph V. Cuffari, ignored recommendations from his investigators and delayed the inquiry until after the 2020 election, according to officials familiar with the matter and a whistle-blower complaint filed in April. At issue was whether Brian Murphy, a former intelligence chief at the department, was demoted by its leadership last summer for warning his superiors and Mr. Cuffari’s office that the Trump administration had deliberately withheld reports about the rising threat of domestic extremism — a warning that proved prescient after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 — and Russia’s attempts to influence the election. Mr. Murphy filed his own complaint about his reassignment in September. But Mr. Cuffari and his aides delayed looking into his claims for weeks last fall and limited the time investigators had to conduct interviews, according to people familiar with the matter and the separate April complaint, filed by Brian Volsky, a former senior investigator in Mr. Cuffari’s office.” [The New York Times, 7/1/21]
Cuffari Squashed An Inquiry Into The Spread Of COVID-19 Among Secret Service Agents, Of Whom 10% Tested Positive For The Virus At One Point. “A second proposed inquiry would have examined Secret Service policies for handling the threat of COVID-19 to agents protecting high-level officials including the president. … Cuffari’s sidelining of his agency’s proposed review of Secret Service COVID-19 policies avoided any potential examination of his role and why so many agents, not to mention Trump, contracted the illness. At one point, more than 130 agents, or about 10% of the agency’s core security personnel, were ordered to isolate or quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the extent of the spread.” [Project On Government Oversight, 4/20/21]
Despite These Obvious Failures, Cuffari Still Attacked His Own Staff When They Called His Lack Of Leadership Into Question
Cuffari Attacked His Own Staff When They Criticized His Leadership To Congress. “Cuffari’s deputy and chief of staff, Kristen Fredericks, … provided a link to a December report commissioned by Cuffari’s office with a private law firm that investigated his subordinates for ‘undermining’ him. That $1.4 million examination of Cuffari’s employees included investigating them for their complaints about Cuffari to Congress and a council of inspectors general—communications that are constitutional and legally protected regardless of motive.” [Project On Government Oversight, 4/20/21]