Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

🚨Today @DHSOIG published a "capping report" on @CBP's treatment of families and others at the border in 2019.

The report rightfully criticizes many of CBP's failures last spring. But it also lets CBP avoid any real accountability for those failures. It is a whitewash.

Thread:

First, a reminder of how bad things were last year. We @immcouncil surveyed 200 moms and filed a @DHSOIG complaint. Highlights:

- 67% said their child wasn't seen by a medical provider.
- 58% who requested medical care for their children didn't get it.

americanimmigrationcouncil.org/advocacy/medic…

Similarly, @ACLU_BRC/@ACLUTx filed a complaint with @DHSOIG about CBP custody in El Paso. They found:

- Families forced to sleep on dirt and rocks
- Verbal and physical abuse
- Inadequate medical care
- Lack of hygiene
- People forced awake every 3 hours

aclutx.org/en/press-relea…

Another @DHSOIG complaint was filed by @ACLUTx/@ACLU_BRC about CBP in the Rio Grande Valley. They found:

- Families forced to sleep outdoors in the mud
- Verbal and physical abuse, including agents kicking people to wake them
- Inadequate medical care
aclutx.org/en/press-relea…

A fourth @DHSOIG complaint was filed by @ACLU_BRC/@sdACLU about CBP San Diego's treatment of pregnant women in 2019. They found:

- mistreatment of pregnant women
- mistreatment/neglect of sick children
- frequent verbal abuse
- Inadequate medical care

aclusandiego.org/aclu-seeks-dhs…

At UC San Diego, @TomWongPhD surveyed 607 asylum-seekers about their time in CBP custody in San Diego in 2019.

- 51.1% reported verbal abuse and 6.7% reported physical abuse
- 25.1% said property was not returned
- 63.3% reported inadequate medical care.
usipc.ucsd.edu/publications/u…

So that's the background. Near-unanimous reports across the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 of serious problems in CBP custody, including inadequate medical care, verbal and physical abuse, inability to sleep, little access to hygiene, and more.

Now back to @DHSOIG's report...

Here's the first page of today's @DHSOIG "capping report."

What jumps out?
- No investigation into verbal/physical abuse
- Emphasis on CBP's "struggles"
- Only two recommendations for improvement, and none on medical care.

Full report here: oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…

The @DHSOIG report finds that there was "severe overcrowding" and that CBP routinely kept people locked up for longer than 72 hours.

But CBP effectively passes the blame to other government agencies. OIG later says there'll be a "separate review" into meeting the 72 hour target.

On medical care, @DHSOIG found that overcrowding directly threatened the health of people in custody... but effectively says that CBP did the best they could under the circumstances, and "generally met the ... standards for access to medical care."

But wait, what about all our complaints about awful medical care? We documented it extensively, so how can @DHSOIG say that care was appropriate?

Well, here's the thing: OIG says "we did not evaluate the quality of medical care CBP provided detainees."

THEY DIDN'T EVALUATE IT!

The @DHSOIG report does find repeated violations of CBP standards in one area—treatment of children.

Children were denied the right to make calls, not given showers or a change of clothes as required, not provided hot food, and more.

OIG's response? But CBP tried their best!

Given that @DHSOIG found repeated violations of care towards children, you'd think they'd offer some kind of sanction or require CBP to make major changes, right?

Well, no. They only want @CBP to write better phone access policies. That's the only child-focused recommendation.

The @DHSOIG report also found something really egregious, again confirmed by our own complaints:

In many places, @CBP wantonly destroyed almost every family's belongings.

They did this even in front of OIG, throwing everything into dumpsters, making families lose everything.

So what is @DHSOIG's response to the wanton destruction of property, with CBP stripping families of everything they have except a few valuables?

"Implement consistent guidance on how [CBP] handles detainee personal property."

Oh, and "a working group" is good enough for now.

Given the utter disaster that was CBP's treatment of families at the border last year, it's hard to see this report as anything other than a whitewash—a slap on the wrist that lets CBP dodge any real consequences for their appalling treatment of families.

OIG must do better.