DHS Deputy Inspector General on Border Security, Cybersecurity, and FEMA Oversight

Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Challenges

• ⚠️ DHS faces ongoing issues in tracking and accounting for migrants, with reports indicating ICE's inability to monitor unaccompanied children after release.
• 📌 Inaccurate or missing addresses and manual processing methods hinder DHS's ability to maintain operational control of the border.
• 🎯 Root causes include a lack of strategic focus for cross-component collaboration, automation, and consistency, impacting CBP and ICE's ability to manage fluctuating migrant volumes.

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Across DHS Components

• 🔒 Audits reveal hundreds of personnel retaining access after leaving DHS or changing positions, alongside numerous users with elevated privileges.
• 📱 Thousands of prohibited and high-risk applications were found on mobile devices, with many not adequately secured.
• ⚙️ Recurring testing identified hundreds of workstations lacking security patches or proper operating settings, contributing to over 4,000 security vulnerabilities in the past three years.
• ✅ DHS has made continuous improvements in cybersecurity, prompted by recommendations and aided by in-house automated testing and strong partnerships.

FEMA's Disaster Program Administration and Questioned Costs

• 📉 FEMA continues to operate in a manner not conducive to the scale and complexity of current disaster environments, despite facing an unprecedented number of natural disasters and a pandemic.
• 💰 Astronomical amounts of questioned costs totaling $12 billion over the last three years have been identified.
• ⏳ Delays in closing out disaster programs have resulted in findings of $7 billion in funds that could have been put to better use.