DHS Proposal Could See Misconduct Allegation Records Destroyed, Watchdog Groups Warn
by Chantal Da Silva
Government watchdog groups are warning the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that approving a proposal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking to reclassify records as “temporary” could see important documents, including records of alleged misconduct, destroyed.
In a letter addressed to Kimberly Keravuori, the regulatory and external policy program manager at NARA, eight organizations, including Open The Government, the Government Accountability Project, the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Historical Association, said approving the proposal would only help the DHS “obstruct oversight and transparency over critical matters.”
“DHS is the subject of numerous lawsuits, media reports and ongoing Congressional inquiries related to the systematic violation of civil rights and civil liberties of American citizens,” the letter states.
“Just this year, federal agents with DHS reportedly seized protestors in unmarked vans and deported a key witness who alleged systematic sexual abuse in a [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] facility,” it notes.
Meanwhile, it says, “the same DHS component is accused of performing unnecessary hysterectomies on women in immigration detention over many years for no discernable medical purpose,” referring to recent allegations that sparked widespread outrage.
Allowing the DHS to move forward with a plan to reclassify documents as “temporary” and therefore eligible for destruction, the letter warns, could see important documents related to allegations against federal workers erased.
“These records are of huge historical value,” Open the Government analyst Freddy Martinez said in a phone interview. Yet, he said, instead of “holding officers accountable, they would rather just destroy their records...and hide patterns of misconduct.”
The letter also specifically takes aim at the DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, which also seeks to have its records, including records collected under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), reclassified.
“The proposed classification of PREA documents as ‘temporary’ records is severely misguided given they contain information of the government’s response to allegations of abuse,” the letter warns.
“Given the long history of DHS and CBP misconduct and the critical public importance of these records, we urge NARA to reject the reclassification,” the letter states.
NARA, its signatories assert, should “refuse to treat records of serious misconduct, including sexual assaults in prisons, as ‘temporary’ and instead move to preserve them for a longer time frame in the public’s interest.”
“The National Archive owes it the American people to treat these records with the seriousness they require,” they write.
NARA and the DHS have been contacted for comment.
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