Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) are warning that federal officials may be targeting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Khufari, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, after he released a series of damning reports exposing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ U.S.-Mexico border policies.
The letter from Johnson and Scott, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, details the whistleblower’s warning, which accuses the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Integrity Committee, chaired by Kimberly Howell, of “politically motivated” targeting Joseph Khufari for a report criticizing the Biden-Harris Administration’s border policies.
These whistleblowers also allege that the Integrity Committee is improperly targeting the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) for possibly political reasons,” wrote the letter from Johnson and Scott, who serve on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The whistleblowers also allege that the Integrity Committee’s investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s OIG may be politically motivated. Homeland Security’s Inspector General Joseph Caffari was appointed by President Trump and has led multiple inspections of southern border vulnerabilities. For example, last year, DHS OIG released reports titled, “DHS Has No Assurance that it Can Locate All Migrants Released into the United States” and “CBP Releases Migrants on Terrorist Watch Lists, and ICE Faces Information Sharing Challenges in Planning and Implementing Apprehensions.”In addition, DHS OIG recently released a report that found problems with “the government’s parole process for the resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghan displaced persons following the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.” In July, the DHS OIG released a report detailing United States Secret Service (USSS) failures around January 6, 2021.4 During its review, the DHS OIG faced issues with obtaining and accessing USSS records, including text messages. DHS and its constituent organizations are impeding the independent work of the DHS OIG. This is unacceptable, and the Inspector General community must stand with Congress to support the DHS OIG.
[Emphasis added]
Indeed, Caffari launched the OIG investigation into the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania, last month.
Similarly, Khufari detailed the changing role of Border Patrol agents under Biden and Harris, noting that a June 2023 OIG report noted that agents now “provide care and welfare services” to newly arrived migrants before they are released onto U.S. soil.
In September 2022, Khufari released a shocking report detailing how the Biden-Harris administration had brought Afghans into American communities who were “not adequately vetted” and “may pose a risk to national security” after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
Also last year, Khufari released an OIG report on an incident in which Biden and Harris’ Department of Homeland Security allowed illegal immigrants on the government’s “terrorism watch list” to board domestic commercial aircraft after releasing them into the United States.
Khufari recently revealed that approximately 67,000 denied travelers were identified at U.S. airports between October 2021 and May 2023. About 400 of these denied travelers were released into the U.S. interior from just one undisclosed airport, and nearly half of them never returned on a deportation flight.
Johnson and Scott’s letter said Caffari’s “ongoing investigation could be perceived as a negative reflection of Biden Administration policy” and may be a “clear attempt to protect the Biden-Harris Administration” by obstructing, delaying or blocking “Mr. Caffari’s efforts to expose the failures of Biden Administration policies, particularly the catastrophe of open borders.”
“To be clear, any attempt to obstruct, delay or silence the DHS OIG, especially for political purposes, is completely unacceptable,” Johnson and Scott wrote. “Based on the DHS OIG’s public reports issued to date, it is clear that Dr. Khuffali and his staff are carrying out their oversight responsibilities well, despite the Integrity Committee’s ongoing investigation.”
Johnson and Scott are calling on Howell to provide details of the investigation into Khufari and how much money has been spent on it.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
