Border Patrol agents neglected to assign registration numbers to migrants to make room in facilities

A new report found that Border Patrol agents did not always assign an “alien registration number” to migrants before they were released into the U.S. to make room in overcrowded facilities during the fiscal year 2021, reported Fox News.

According to the report, published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Border Patrol agents did follow screening procedures to prevent migrants with criminal backgrounds or individuals on the terrorist watchlist from entering the U.S.

However, the report found that Border Patrol agents did not always assign registration numbers—known as “A-numbers”— to those migrants which did not raise many concerns.

A-numbers are used to create files for each migrant that crosses the border. The number allows authorities to track and locate the migrants' file and history of encounters at the border.

Additionally, the A-number can also be used by officials to obtain the migrant’s immigration forms, apprehension narrative, and background checks.

The OIG report found that Border Patrol agents did not issue A-numbers for 107 of 384 migrants in a statistical sample size. Instead, the migrants were given “Notices to Report.”

The report claims that border patrol agents did not assign A-numbers to all migrants because they were “trying to expedite processing and move migrants out of Border Patrol facilities that were over capacity.”

The report concluded that these practices for processing migrants "could jeopardize the Government’s ability to track migrants released into the United States and ensure migrants appear for immigration proceedings."