Trump Administration Guts Civil Rights Agencies Overseeing Immigration Crackdown

Trump administration dismantled three watchdog agencies responsible for overseeing immigration policy.

On March 21, the Trump administration dismantled three watchdog agencies responsible for overseeing immigration policy, aligning with its controversial deportation campaign that has removed people from the United States with minimal due process.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which The New York Times noted has not exactly been forthcoming about the administration’s approach to immigration, the cuts of these civil rights offices were enacted to “streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement.”

DHS has made widespread layoffs at its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which is responsible for ensuring the agency upholds individual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law.

DHS also cut staff from two major ombudsman offices. The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, which addresses concerns about the immigration process, and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which allows the public to report issues affecting detained immigrants, were impacted by the layoffs, The Hill reports.

Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS’ spokeswoman, added in a statement, “These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining D.H.S.’s mission. Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”

Others, like Deborah Fleischaker, a former civil rights worker and chief of staff of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Biden administration, believe that the cuts hide a more menacing agenda from the Trump administration.

“It’s a demonstration of their total contempt for any checks on their power,” Fleischaker said to The New York Times, adding that one of the offices the administration eliminated “endeavored to make the D.H.S. mission work with respect for civil rights, civil liberties and privacy. This is a clear message that those things do not matter to this administration.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), a top member of his party on the Homeland Security Committee, concurred with Fleischaker’s assessment, telling the outlet that the mass layoffs at the DHS were an attempt to establish “that there will be no transparency or oversight of his extreme agenda.”