The Office of Inspector General confirmed to Congress that it is reviewing the botched implementation of Trump’s executive order that imposed a travel ban

The official watchdog of the Department of Homeland Security is investigating alleged misconduct by immigration officials at US airports as a result of Donald Trump’s stalled travel ban on people from majority-Muslim countries.



The Office of Inspector General (OIG), the body vested with investigating alleged abuses within the DHS, has confirmed to Congress that it is carrying out an internal review of the botched implementation of Trump’s executive order that imposed a travel ban on the predominantly Muslim populations of several nations. The ban was introduced twice, and on both occasions halted at the order of federal judges.

In a letter to Yvette Clarke, a member of Congress from New York, the DHS inspector general, John Roth, confirmed that the OIG had initiated an investigation into the implementation of Trump’s travel ban and any abuses that might have occurred by Customs and Border Protection officials. “In addition to reviewing its implementation, we will review DHS’s adherence to court orders and allegations of individual misconduct on the part of DHS personnel, including CBP agents,” he said.

The first executive order released by Trump in late January under the title Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States provoked widespread chaos and confusion at many US airports such as New York’s JFK and LAX in Los Angeles. It barred entry for people from seven largely Muslim countries, later reduced to six with the second revised iteration of the ban.

Civil rights groups complained that CBP agents at JFK and Dulles airport in Virginia defied the restraining order imposed by a federal court by continuing to detain people even after the judge had demanded that the travel ban be halted. While the ban continues to be on hold through the action of the judiciary, there are ongoing reports of excessively aggressive treatment of visitors by CBP agents at airports, such as the recent detention at JFK of a former police chief from North Carolina.

In late February, almost 40 members of Congress wrote to the secretary of homeland security, John Kelly, protesting that the ongoing block on the travel ban was not being communicated properly to CBP agents on the ground at US borders.

“Many immigrants who had been thoroughly vetted and cleared by a variety of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies were detained for extended periods of time, denied access to legal counsel and in some cases forced to abandon their lawful status and return to their respective countries of origin.”

Clarke told the Guardian that she was particularly concerned about detention of visitors at US airports, and about the impact of Trump’s executive orders designed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. “Many of the families I represent in Brooklyn are threatened by Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration and are concerned that a knock on the door in the middle of the night could result in forced separation from their children,” Clarke said.

She added: “We need the Department of Homeland Security to investigate all allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might have abused the constitutional rights of anyone detained and, if problems are discovered, to implement revised procedures immediately.”

Clarke introduced a House bill earlier this month that would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to wear body cameras during immigration raids that have proliferated under the Trump administration.

Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has been at the forefront of legal challenges to Trump’s immigration crackdown, said he had “very significant concerns about the way the administration is enforcing the immigration laws. We saw civil rights violations when the first Muslim ban was issued, and there have been other significant violations unrelated to the travel ban.”

Among the areas that the ACLU is keeping a close eye on are arrests of so-called Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children to whom President Obama afforded legal protection under the Daca program that has nominally been left in place by Trump. The ACLU has also expressed concern about Ice grabbing people in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and places of worship that had been considered out of bounds.

Confirmation of the DHS watchdog’s investigation of alleged misconduct by CBP officials marks a stepping-up of the internal ructions within the Trump administration over the president’s highly contentious immigration plans. In February the Intercept reported that the OIG was carrying out an investigation of the implementation of the travel ban, but that it did not go so far as to cover the individual behavior of federal officers.

Roth’s letter also reveals that the civil rights division within DHS, known as the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), had also been looking into the impact of the travel ban. That investigation has now been put on hold until the OIG watchdog can complete its work.