Audit: CBP Undercounted In-Custody Deaths

Published: Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - 2:35pm

A new investigation finds that the country’s border enforcement agency has undercounted how many people died in its custody.

Since 2014, Customs and Border Protection hasn’t accurately reported how many people died in its custody to Congress. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, published its findings and announced them to the House Homeland Security Committee. 

The GAO’s Rebecca Gambler notes 31 people died in CBP custody along the Southwest border between 2014 and 2019.

"However CBP only documented 20 deaths in its congressional reports," she told the committee.

She told Congress CBP agreed with her findings and that while directives came down from Washington, officials in the field didn’t follow them.

Fronteras