The Trump transition team's latest strange request of an agency appears to be an effort at keeping the administrations' options open regarding some 700,000 recipients of temporary deportation relief under President Obama. Matt Shuham reports:
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team asked the Department of Homeland Security whether any immigrants' records had been changed for any reason, according to a Reuters report out Tuesday.
Reuters reported, citing an internal DHS memo, that Trump’s transition team asked during a Dec. 5 meeting with agency officials whether any records of immigrants to the United States had been changed, including out of "civil liberties concerns." [...]
An unnamed DHS official told Reuters that the agency interpreted the request from Trump’s team to mean they were ensuring federal workers did not tamper with information to prevent people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and other immigrants, from deportation.
The Trump transition team has made several unnerving requests of federal agencies, including an effort to identify which employees at the Energy Department have worked on climate change (apparently, a crime in the making) and an inquiry of the State Department about “gender-related staffing, programming and funding" (apparently, soon to be considered treasonous behavior as well).