- Border agents were ordered to transport asylum-seekers away from the frontier
- A damning probe said it was to hide 'reality' from visiting VIPs
- Thousands of migrants plan to sneak into the U.S. once emergency Covid laws expire
The revelations came in a damning probe into the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) handling of the migration crisis.
They also follow repeated calls from Republicans to renew a Trump-era Covid diktat that allows the U.S. to boot out illegals more easily.
The report by a top government accountability watchdog grilled more than 9,000 border officials who painted a bleak picture of how authorities are coping.
They told the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said that a VIP visit to frontier posts would see bosses orchestrate a cover-up.
Top management 'would transport migrants out of the facility before a visit and return them after the visit ended', the report said.
One source said he was asked to take would-be asylum-seekers away 'and make this place look fit and proper to code.'
Border agents, speaking off the record, also claimed that senior managers would 'require more staff to work, creating the impression that they are sufficiently staffed.'
They said visitors 'are not shown how conditions are in reality' in a 65-page tirade by OIG investigators on how the DHS was failing its employees.
The damning assessment by border and immigration officers marks yet another border humiliation for Joe Biden.
The president has been repeatedly slammed by Republicans over his axing of Donald Trump's border wall two years ago.
The OIG also said that border forces are struggling to cope with the increased numbers of migrants sneaking into the country due to low staffing levels.
Its report said that the situation is 'unsustainable' in the battle against illicit crossings across the southwestern frontier.
OIG investigators said this meant asylum-seekers could escape into the U.S. more easily.
They said there were more than 600,000 'gotaways' who were spotted by border cameras or sensor technology last year, up from 389,000 in 2021.
An estimated 13,000 people could try to cross each day after the expiry of Title 42, the emergency anti-immigration laws used during the coronavirus pandemic.
It expires on May 11 because the current president has decided to end the coronavirus emergency.
Thousands of people have already started gathering at the border between the U.S. and Mexico in the hope of making the crossing.
At least 2.3 million migrants tried to illegally cross into the United States across the Mexican border last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
That is up from 1.7 million people in 2021 and just over 450,000 the previous year when much of the world was locked down during the pandemic.
