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6h ago

DHS Oversight Offices Left Largely Defunct as ICE Custody Deaths Mount

DHS asserts essential watchdog duties persist under a phased rebuild plan despite staff cuts that reduced oversight teams to about a dozen members

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters on January 28, in Washington, DC.
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Overview

  • March suspensions effectively shut down the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman
  • At least 11 people have died in ICE custody since the start of the fiscal year, nearing the total of 12 deaths reported in all of fiscal year 2024
  • Hundreds of pending investigations were left unresolved, including complaints of medical neglect and wrongful deportation
  • Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Southern Border Communities Coalition filed an April lawsuit arguing that Congress-mandated oversight offices were unlawfully eliminated
  • CoreCivic and GEO Group are reopening and expanding multiple detention sites while DHS opens a new facility in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz”