DHS Shutters Detention Watchdog as ICE Deaths Rise
The US Department of Homeland Security is closing its detention watchdog, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, even as reports of abuse inside ICE custody keep mounting. An internal email said the office is “in the process of removing all its public signage and ending its inspection,” and its website was down Monday.
That office was built to sit apart from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection. It could receive detainee complaints, investigate alleged abuse or misconduct, inspect detention facilities, and report systemic problems to DHS leaders and Congress.
Trump-era office faces closure
The office was established by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2020. Its current dismantling comes after the recent 76-day shutdown, when the Homeland Security appropriations package left the office without federal funding, according to the internal email.
HuffPost reporter Dave Jamieson reported Monday that DHS is shutting down the office. The timing is notable because the watchdog emerged amid widespread abuse of detained migrants during the first Trump administration, and Trump administration efforts to dilute its powers have already triggered legal action arguing that the agency cannot be abolished without congressional consent.
ICE detention deaths
Last year was the deadliest in ICE detention in about two decades, with more than 30 deaths reported in custody. So far this year, at least 18 more detainees had reportedly died in ICE custody. The complaints reaching the office have included inadequate or delayed medical care, physical attacks and excessive force, sexual abuse and harassment, misuse of solitary confinement, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, intimidation and retaliation after complaints, and denial of food, water, hygiene, medication, lawyers, and family contact.
Those allegations span more than one kind of harm, which is why the office’s inspection and reporting powers mattered for detainees trying to document what happened inside facilities. A former CRCL employee described the value of “meaningful investigations” in a recent court filing.
What DHS is closing next
The closure does not stop the legal challenge tied to the Trump administration’s effort to shrink detention oversight. The same administration has also targeted the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, keeping the fight over immigration detention oversight inside DHS and Congress rather than inside the inspection office itself.
