The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general confirmed last September that border agents lied about the in-custody death of a 16-year-old boy in May 2019. They’d claimed they’d checked on him regularly. An investigation found “that had not actually occurred.” Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez, an Indigenous child from Guatemala, died alone on the cement floor of a Border Patrol cell.

But the inspector general confirmed these findings in a short, one-page press release. No full report was released at that time. However, ProPublica and El Paso Matters have obtained a portion of it through the Freedom of Information Act.

“The report found that only one health care worker was on duty when Hernandez died the night of May 19, even though more than 200 sick migrants were housed in a makeshift ward,” ProPublica and El Paso Matters report. “A pediatrician who reviewed the case for investigators wrote that agents should have noticed that Hernandez was in trouble.” But they didn’t notice because they weren’t checking on him, and were instead falsifying logs.

“On May 19, 2019, from 11:48 p.m. until May 20, 2019, at 4:11 a.m., the video did not show any physical checks,” reads a screenshot of the inspector general’s report. “However, the computer system, [redacted], displayed a completed check every hour.” Surveillance video previously obtained by ProPublica showed the boy crumpled up next to a toilet after dying from flu. His body was there for hours. 

“Falsifying federal records to impede administration of an agency’s function is a crime,” ProPublica and El Paso Matters report. “But the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas declined to prosecute anyone in Hernandez’s death, the report said. The U.S. attorney declined ProPublica’s request for comment on the decision.” Nor would Customs and Border Protection (CBP) say if any agents were disciplined, “or whether any changes had been made as a result of the inspector general report.”

There’s a reason why CBP is known as one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the nation. There’s an entire shadow police unit within the department with the sole purpose of covering up abuses by agents. CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus has defended these cover-up units as “vitally important.” Sure—to criminal border agents. Even when abusive border agents have been recommended for discipline, the agency has worked to reduce punishment.

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, who last year urged the full release of the inspector general’s report, told ProPublica and El Paso Matters that the report “confirms a concerning lapse in care for the health and well-being of Carlos, as well as the importance of appropriate training and resources for personnel caring for children in custody. CBP must do better.”

But so must Congress. Despite this years-long record of abuses, lawmakers continue to throw billions of dollars at the agency. “Since 2003, the budget of CBP, which includes both the Border Patrol and operations at ports of entry, has also nearly tripled, rising from $5.9 billion in FY 2003 to a high of $17.7 billion in FY 2021,” American Immigration Council said last year. Lawmakers have continued to fund the agency even as it’s openly defied them. When CBP holds out its hand, it’s not even for a slap on the wrist, it’s to grab its next check.

“The agency said it is continuing an internal investigation, 32 months after Hernandez died and four months after receiving the inspector general report,” the report said. ProPublica reported in late 2019 how thousands of mourners met the boy’s body when he was returned to Guatemala following his death.

“Carlos’ grief-stricken parents questioned how their son could have died in U.S. custody,” the report said. So did his teacher, Jose Morales Pereira. “If you have an animal that’s sick and you’ve kept it in a room, every little while you’re going to go check on it, see if it has water, whether it’s shivering,” he said in the report. “That’s with an animal. And this was a human being.” Remember Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez.

RELATED: DHS watchdog confirms border officials failed to conduct required checks on teen who died in custody

RELATED: 16-year-old migrant boy died alone, next to border facility toilet, autopsy report reveals

RELATED: No children had died in federal immigration custody for a decade—until the Trump administration