The Office Meant to Investigate Abuse in Immigrant Detention Is Gone

The office meant to investigate abuse in immigrant detention is gone

The next time someone dies in immigration enforcement custody, there’ll be one less oversight office to look into it.  The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has officially shut down the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsmen, or OIDO.  “DHS did not shutdown the Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman — Congress did,” an agency spokesperson told HuffPost in an email. “The House passed the DHS appropriations bill without objection,…

DHS blames funding lapse for shutdown of internal detention oversight

The office investigates detainee deaths and access to medical care, among other issues. It's being wound down, even as the number of detention deaths and length of detention stays has grown.

The DHS Just Got Rid of its Own ICE Detentions Watchdog

Ever since he took the helm at the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin has made a habit of running a more understated deportation project compared to his predecessor, Kristi Noem. (Given ICE Barbie couldn’t go a minute without splashing out on some tacky campaign, this wasn’t that hard to do.) But while Mullin’s approach has been less grimly theatrical than Noem’s… it’s definitely been creepier.  On Monday, the Huffington Post reve…