The Department of Homeland Security on Friday eliminated numerous civil rights offices, ending oversight of its immigration policies and avenues for public complaints.
The department said it was conducting wide scale layoffs at DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which ensures the agency protects “individual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law” in its policies and actions.
DHS also fired staff for the offices of two major ombudsmen, which hear complaints and work to resolve disputes within the immigration system.
The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman provides a platform for those to bring concerns about the immigration process, while the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman is a route for the public to flag issues about the problems facing those held in immigration detention.
The DHS confirmed the move, accusing both entities of obstructing the department’s mission.
“DHS remains committed to civil rights protections but must streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement. These reductions ensure taxpayer dollars support the Department’s core mission: border security and immigration enforcement,” the department said in a statement.
“These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission. Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”
Eliminating the offices silences those who provide a critical review of DHS policies or serve as an outlet for those to flag civil liberties concerns with U.S. policies.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) called the move a bid to end oversight of DHS.
“With Trump’s mass firing of the entire DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties workforce, he is ensuring in advance that there will be no transparency or oversight of his extreme agenda,” he said, noting the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was created after 9/11 “to help ensure that the newly created Department of Homeland Security upholds the Constitution and laws that protect everyone in the country.
“Effectively shuttering the office, while Congressional Republicans refuse to conduct any oversight, means that DHS will have carte blanche to do whatever Trump dictates, lawful or not.”
A DHS spokesperson said all employees were being terminated through a reduction in force, meaning they will be placed on administrative leave for 60 days.
The decision was also swiftly criticized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
“The Trump administration just axed DHS civil rights offices, whining about bureaucratic hurdles,” they wrote on X.
“Civil rights oversight is not a bureaucratic hurdle if you don’t break the law, geniuses.”
“We are keeping tabs,” they added.
The New York Times first reported the decision.
The move comes as the Trump administration has been under fire over human rights concerns with a number of its policies, most recently the activation of the Alien Enemies Act.
In a Saturday order, President Trump invoked the rarely used wartime powers, allowing the removal of any citizen of an enemy nation without a hearing.
In his proclamation, Trump allowed for the deportation of any Venezuelan older than 14 years who the government asserts is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang. The law has been used just a handful of times in the past, most recently as the legal basis for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
After the order, the Trump administration flew more than 230 Venezuelans to El Salvador, paying the government there to imprison them.
Updated at 7:01 p.m. EDT
