DHS watchdog paused some probes of immigration enforcement amid shutdown

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog has suspended an ongoing audit of no-bid contracts due to the agency’s continued funding suspension, as well as reviews of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers and cases of possible use of excessive force in immigration enforcement, according to a DHS official and an administration official.

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Other DHS inspector general reviews that were suspended due to the shutdown include four investigations into the Secret Service’s response to the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, ICE’s progress in tracing and monitoring the safety of immigrant children who entered the United States unaccompanied, and a review of Homeland Security Investigations’ efforts to combat the spread of fentanyl across U.S. borders.

Overall, about 85% of audits conducted by the DHS inspector general are on pause, according to a statement from the inspector general’s office to NBC News.

The pause in internal DHS oversight is an unprecedented consequence of the partial government shutdown that cut off funding to the agency and is now entering its eighth week with little indication of when it will end soon. It comes as ICE arrests continue amid the shutdown, in part because of the agency’s $75 billion infusion through a sweeping tax and spending bill signed by Trump last year.

The Trump administration’s mass deportation policies have raised civil rights concerns and prompted increased scrutiny of how DHS awarded no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars. Democrats continue to push for changes in immigration enforcement tactics in exchange for agreeing to end the shutdown and defund DHS.

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari is one of the few Cabinet-level inspectors general not fired within days of Trump taking office last year.

A spokesperson for the inspector general’s office said in the statement that the office “will maximize the usefulness of all resources granted to us in our work to provide independent oversight of DHS programs and operations.”

The spokesperson also said that 60% of its workforce has been made unemployed. Those who remain include special agents conducting criminal investigations and those whose work is funded by sources other than the office’s annual appropriations, such as work related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or work funded by the Disaster Relief Fund.

ICE detention centers and immigration enforcement tactics are two issues that congressional Democrats say should be changed and given more transparency after complaints from immigration attorneys and some lawmakers about deteriorating conditions in detention centers and the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.

No-bid contracts at DHS have come under scrutiny since last month, when former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced questions from lawmakers during a congressional hearing over her and former senior adviser Corey Lewandoswki’s role in procurement decisions.

Ongoing criminal investigations by the inspector general, including a probe into a $220 million DHS ad campaign featuring the former Noem and a broader range of contracts, previously reported by NBC News, are continuing, according to the administration official. Investigators working on those investigations will not be paid during the shutdown, the official said.

The DHS Office of Inspector General confirmed telling Congress that it currently handles 650 investigations, 60 audits, and 20 inspections and receives more than 20,000 complaints annually.

The latest White House budget proposal calls for a $22 million cut to the DHS inspector general’s budget.