An anonymous whistleblower has come forward to file a report alleging abuse, fraud and waste inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division with the Office of Special Counsel. The whistleblower, who is apparently a member of an immigration agency within the federal government, claims that these abuses and wastes of taxpayer money are a clear threat to the ability of the country’s immigration officers to keep American citizens safe and enforce immigration law.
According to Breitbart News, which has gained exclusive access to the report, the whistleblower is claiming that the abuse and waste could involve as many as 500 federal agents at a cost to US taxpayers of as much as $27.5 million per annum.
The report has emerged in the midst of new findings revealing that interior deportations have fallen by 62 percent between 2012 and 2015, Department of Homeland Security data has revealed. This is despite the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for such removals, has seen its budget for the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants increase by as much as 25 percent in the same period, rising from $2.75 billion in the 2012 fiscal year to as high as $3.43 billion in the 2015 fiscal year.
The whistleblower claims that millions have been spent on law enforcement vehicles, fuel and maintenance, yet those vehicles are actually being used by management executives for personal use rather than to agents who just want to do their jobs.