Republican Montana Sen. Josh Hawley is demanding a federal probe into allegations that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is providing sandwiches to illegal immigrants at the southern border.
In a letter addressed to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, Hawley writes that he wants an “immediate investigation” into the whistleblower allegations that the department has stopped investigations into child exploitation and instead focused on providing sandwiches for illegals.
Rep. Josh Hawley GRILLS Alejandro Mayorkas over DHS special agents getting pulled off investigating child trafficking to make sandwiches for illegal immigrants at the southern border.
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 1, 2023
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“I write to request an immediate investigation into whistleblower allegations that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has shut down or delayed investigations into child exploitation and other crimes in order to transfer hundreds of special agents to process illegal immigrants at the southern border,” the senator wrote.
“No fewer than four separate DHS whistleblowers have contacted my office alleging a severe mismanagement of staffing and resources at the direction of senior officials within DHS, allegations which may demonstrate a violation of law. These allegations merit an immediate investigation,” he continued.
Hawley is specifically asking Cuffari how many DHS agents were reassigned to assist in the entry of illegal immigrants into the interior of the U.S. and how many of those agents were then forced to postpone looking into cases of criminal activity and child exploitation.
“All the whistleblowers allege that important criminal investigations stalled and suspects were not arrested or indicted as a result of these reassignments. Agents were pulled from investigations ranging from child exploitation to drug trafficking to counterterrorism,” the Montana Republican wrote.
“One whistleblower was pulled from child exploitation cases ‘that haunt your soul when you aren’t available and able to ensure the children involved aren’t being abused.’ Another whistleblower alleges that hands-on child molesters were not arrested and further provides specific examples of child exploitation indictments that were delayed or adversely affected due to these reassignments,” he added.
This comes as the U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers since President Joe Biden announced last year that he would be lifting “Title 42,” a controversial border policy implemented by former President Donald Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the border agency to turn migrants away.
Since then, nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border for the fiscal year ending in September, surpassing the already-historic number of 1.7 million migrant detainees in 2021. The numbers are likely to increase now that “Title 42” has been lifted.
