Just after the news that four US states are suing the Trump administration over the president’s executive order banning refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security has delivered additional bad news for Trump.
DHS Inspector General John Roth has issued a directive to preserve all documents related to Trump’s executive order as part of an internal investigation into its execution, according to an internal document obtained by The Intercept.
In an agency-wide directive sent to DHS staff early Wednesday afternoon, the IG’s office wrote:
“All agency personnel must preserve any document that contains information that is potentially relevant to OIG’s investigation, or that might reasonably lead to the discovery of relevant information relating to the implementation of this Executive Order. Any relevant information that is within your possession or control must be preserved in the exact form as it currently exists.”
DHS Inspector General John Roth | Imgur
According to the report, the launch of the probe follows calls from Democratic senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin for a “comprehensive investigation” into the “chaotic execution” of the administration’s order, which separated families around the world and led to mass protests at multiple U.S. airports.
“The lawmakers also asked the IG to investigate whether CBP officers complied with subsequent court orders, and whether DHS and CBP officers kept a list of individuals that they detained at ports of entry,” The Intercept writes.
Despite a Saturday night federal court order blocking all ban-related removals, and a series of subsequent legal challenges in a number of states, including one in Virginia mandating that lawyers be granted access to individuals arriving from affected countries, reports of noncompliance with the orders continued to spread in the following days.
On Monday, Political Dig reported on local business owner who flew to Iraq to bring his mother back home to the US for medical treatment but was forced leave her behind by Donald Trump’s ban. Sadly, his mother, who was a legal resident, died just one day after being told she couldn’t enter the United States.
“They destroyed us. I went with my family, I came back by myself. They destroyed our family,” the man said.
The Department’s IG office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.
