Border Security and Immigration

The federal government is responsible for conducting a number of activities to protect U.S. borders and enforce immigration laws, mainly through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, there are a number of areas in which these agencies can improve how they manage and implement these activities—on which they spend billions of dollars each year.  

For instance: 

• Immigration enforcement. DHS’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for immigration enforcement within the U.S. This includes making arrests, providing safe confinement of noncitizens in detention facilities, and removing noncitizens. Regarding detentions, ICE’s public reporting doesn’t include all the people it detains in its facilities, resulting in underestimates of tens of thousands of people. For example, in FY 2022, ICE’s reporting excluded detentions of 136,706 individuals.  

• Immigration detention. Since January 2025, ICE has invested billions to expand detention capacity, but urgent planning is needed to avoid further waste of taxpayer dollars. For example, ICE purchased 11 warehouses for $1 billion. But ICE pursued this and the other initiatives without necessary analysis and planning. ICE now intends to sell 7 of the 11 warehouses, but the agency has spent over $20 million on costs it can't recover (such as security). Additionally, the Army and ICE opened ICE's largest facility—Camp East Montana—quickly, which led to several issues. The facility contract requires ICE to pay the full cost of meals and operational services for 5,000 people, even when the facility's population is far lower. This has resulted in millions of dollars of waste. The facility also did not meet key detention standards, risking the safety and security of detained noncitizens and staff.   

• Checkpoint data. DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for securing U.S. borders at and between ports of entry. Within CBP, U.S. Border Patrol operates over 100 immigration checkpoints along U.S. borders where agents screen vehicles to identify noncitizens who are potentially removable; they may also enforce U.S. criminal law. Agents are required to collect data on checkpoint activity, including how many smuggled people are apprehended and how many drug seizures were made using canines. However, agents at checkpoints inconsistently documented this data, which makes oversight of these checkpoints difficult. 

Border Patrol Checkpoint Canine Team Inspects a Vehicle 

• Incidents involving CBP personnel. CBP personnel may be involved in “critical” incidents that result in serious injury or death, such as a child dying in custody. They may also be involved in less serious, “noncritical” incidents, such as a vehicle accident that results in property damage. While CBP’s Office of Responsibility is to investigate critical incidents, Border Patrol sectors respond to noncritical incidents involving their agents and assess the agency’s liability for associated property damage. However, without guidance or oversight from headquarters, the Border Patrol sectors approach noncritical incident response inconsistently. There are also concerns that their activities may infringe on investigations of critical incidents.  

• CBP provision of medical care. CBP detains noncitizens who unlawfully enter the U.S. at short-term holding facilities. Deaths of children in CBP custody have raised concerns about how the agency provides medical care. CBP has not consistently followed its policies and guidance for providing medical care to people in its custody. For example, medically high-risk people didn't always receive required medical assessments.  

Individuals in U.S. Customs and Border Protection Custody Waiting for a Medical Assessment

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