DHS says it won’t eliminate oversight offices but is still pursuing layoffs

The Homeland Security Department is no longer planning on shuttering three oversight offices whose entire workforces were told in March that they were being laid off. Officials are still going through with reductions in force, however, leading to continued questions from stakeholders about the ability of migrants and members of the public to report civil rights violations. 

Notices at the top of web pages for the offices for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman say that each entity “continues to exist and will perform its statutorily required functions.” 

A coalition of groups that filed a lawsuit to block the offices’ closures attributed the notices to a federal judge who during a May 23 hearing “instructed lawyers for DHS to clarify in a public statement that the offices are not being abolished.” 

DHS in March had issued RIF notices to all employees in each of the offices, impacting a little more than 300 individuals. 

In response to a question from Government Executive about whether the department was planning on bringing back affected employees in these offices, a senior spokesperson said that DHS is still implementing RIFs in CRCL, CISOMB and OIDO. 

“DHS remains committed to civil rights protections but must streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement,” the official 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.”

CRCL investigates allegations that DHS violated civil rights or civil liberties. CISOMB helps individuals solve issues they’re having with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, while OIDO “independently examines immigration detention to promote safe, humane conditions.” 

Bloomberg Government was the first to report the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the offices. 

Karla Gilbride — an attorney with Public Citizen, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit — emphasized that the legal battle is not over. 

“Saying these offices continue to exist isn’t enough; DHS must allow these offices to do their jobs protecting the civil rights of vulnerable people caught in a system that is currently supercharged with extremism and hate,” she said in a statement. 

As the Trump administration seeks to implement mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, migrant advocates have alleged due process violations. For example, a federal judge on May 21 said DHS contravened a court order by not giving migrants who officials are attempting to deport to South Sudan enough notice in order to appeal.