Trump administration shuts down immigration detention center oversight office

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is closing the office responsible for investigating violations and abuses in the immigration detention system. This was announced in an internal departmental memo, which was obtained by the agency. HuffPost.

According to the letter, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) is already removing all public signs and ceasing inspections.

The department's website, where relatives and lawyers of detainees were instructed on how to file complaints, was no longer operational by May 4. Even the information pages describing the office's functions appear to have been removed.

On the subject: At the Alligator Alcatraz Detention Center, prisoners are beaten and starved.

The letter attributes the closure to a lack of funding in the Department of Homeland Security appropriations law passed after the recent averted federal government shutdown, although the law's text does not directly require the closure of the ombudsman's office.

"DHS did not shut down the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman—Congress did," the department stated. "The House of Representatives passed the DHS funding bill without objection, and last week it was signed into law."

The closure of the ombudsman's office exacerbates the lack of oversight over immigration detention facilities nationwide, despite the Trump administration's push to dramatically expand the immigration detention system.

Initially this year, a record 73 people were held in immigration detention centers, according to CBS News, although that number has recently dropped to about 60.

Last year, more than 30 people died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers—the highest death toll among ICE detainees since 2004. According to the agency, 18 deaths in custody have already been recorded, and the number of fatalities continues to rise.

According to Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office on Latin America, co-author of a recent report on the "dismantling" of DHS oversight structures, the closure of OIDO fits into a broader strategy of pressure on individuals. This strategy is aimed at forcing migrants to abandon their immigration and asylum cases under threat of detention and the understanding that conditions there will be extremely harsh.

"If you want to make detention as painful as possible because you see it, in some twisted way, as a deterrent to immigration, then you're going to do everything you can to get rid of the ombudsman's office because it's going to be a nuisance," Isaacson emphasized. "It's another blow to the country's already damaged immigration system, another way to push people out."

Isaacson believes the closure of OIDO is illegal, as the office was created by federal law passed by Congress. The office was established in 2019 and began operations in 2021.

"It's clearly written into law: Congress created this office, and only Congress can dismantle it," he concluded. In his view, the agency likely had sufficient funds from previous funding laws to continue its operations.

The Trump administration has already significantly limited the powers of OIDO and other oversight bodies.

As The Guardian reported in March, court documents revealed that the office employed only five people (up from over 100 at the beginning of last year). Meanwhile, the number of immigration detention centers has more than doubled during Trump's second term.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants, and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

Department of Homeland Security officials have frequently argued that harsh detention conditions should encourage people to "self-deport"—abandon their immigration cases and return to their home countries to escape detention.

As one DHS official noted in March, "being in custody is an individual's choice."

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