GAO report finds former CBP Critical Incident Team personnel reassigned to Evidence Collection and Management Inquiry Teams; OPR independence compromised

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released GAO-24-106148, Southwest Border: CBP Could Take Additional Steps to Strengthen Its Response to Incidents Involving Its Personnel, on May 13, 2024 — the audit completed pursuant to the January 24, 2022 ten-chair joint congressional letter requesting review of Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams.

The report documented that seven of nine southwest border Border Patrol sectors had operated CITs from 1987 to 2022 without statutory authority. The Border Patrol Office of Chief Counsel had claimed authority under 5 U.S.C. § 301 — the federal “housekeeping” statute governing records preservation — which GAO concluded was insufficient. Only the FBI, DHS OIG, and CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility have statutory authority to investigate criminal use of force by Border Patrol personnel.

During the 2010-2022 window, CITs responded to nearly 900 critical incidents involving Border Patrol agents, including 149 fatal encounters.

The report’s load-bearing post-reform finding: former CIT members were assigned to Evidence Collection Teams and Management Inquiry Teams that are directed by sector chiefs in the same manner as the original CITs, “compromising criminal investigations.” All southwest border sectors maintained these successor teams as of FY 2023. Additionally, the report identified OPR independence concerns: OPR is not fully independent of CBP management, and new OPR hires are drawn largely from Border Patrol ranks.

The May 2022 Magnus reform terminated the CIT name but not the CIT institutional function. This is the primary-source documentation of the personnel rotation pattern that the broader CIT-to-OPR investigation tracks.