Not only has Immigration and Customs Enforcement potentially removed noncitizen U.S. veterans from the country, but it does not "consistently follow its policies," nor does it "maintain complete electronic data" on veterans' cases, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has developed policies for handling cases of noncitizen veterans who may be subject to removal from the United States, but does not consistently adhere to those policies, and does not consistently identify and track such veterans," the report concluded.
The report found "ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 through 2018." Once ICE agents encounter a veteran, standing policies "require them to take additional steps to proceed with the case."
"Additionally, ICE has not developed a policy to identify and document all military veterans it encounters during interviews, and in cases when agents and officers do learn they have encountered a veteran, ICE does not maintain complete electronic data," the report continued. "Therefore, ICE does not have reasonable assurance that it is consistently
implementing its policies for handling veterans' cases."
ICE issued a statement to CNN responding to its removal of noncitizen U.S. service member and veterans, justifying the deportations because of criminality.
"In 100 percent of the veteran case files GAO reviewed, the individuals were placed into removal proceedings because of felony convictions related to drugs; sexual abuse, of which 18 involved minors; firearms, explosives, or explosive material; kidnapping; terrorist threats; and other crimes," the statement read, per CNN.
The GAO report did acknowledge ICE facilitates naturalization of noncitizen service
members and veterans, but the applications "declined sharply from fiscal years 2017 to 2018," and approval fell in 2018, because Department of Defense has changed it policies to reduce "the number of noncitizens joining the military," per the report.
"We cannot allow noncitizen veterans to fall through the cracks of our broken immigration system," Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., wrote Thursday in a letter to Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan, according to CNN.
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