Civil rights workers warn against the potential for violations of the detention of ice: NPR

When Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock was an immigration lawyer, she told customers in detention to seek the Colibris logo.

The Colibri floated on the tablets of cases of cases working for the office of the Ombudsman of the holding of immigration, one of the three surveillance offices in the Department of Internal Security.

With those of the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Freedoms, these government employees were supposed to help immigration defenders like Whitlock manage the immediate needs of people in detention. This could be to ensure that prisoners have obtained their necessary drugs or a culturally appropriate diet. Or it may be to manage complaints concerning the use of lonely detention, sexual assault or problems with infants in detention.

The Trump administration earlier reduced hundreds of staff members in these offices mandated by the Congress to save money and because the DHS argued that it was “internal opponents who slow down operations”.

This included federal employees who had made regular visits to detention centers, examined and investigated complaints concerning the conditions of detention and prepared reports due to the congress.

“You have no one to turn to you,” said Whitlock, now a political advisor to the National Immigration Law Center, a defense group for legal defenders. Without the offices, the defenders of immigration turn to the members of the Congress to solve problems in the name of their customers.

“It is like a unique situation,” she said, about awareness of the congress. “It is not a way to deal with someone who has problems.”

NPR spoke with four former employees – all part of a trial contesting their layoffs – which said that they would regularly examine policies and programs related to DHS immigration to ensure that there were no violations of civil rights.

Now it is not clear that has this role – even if the Trump administration accelerates the detention space provided by immigration and the application of customs, after a boost of the Congress this summer.

“DHS CRCL fulfills all the legally required functions, but in an effective and profitable manner and without hindering the ministry’s mission to obtain the homeland,” said DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, speaking of the Civil Rights and Civil Freedoms Office.

The former agency’s surveillance dogs warn that rapid expansion occurs without hundreds of internal employees to supervise it, increasing the risk of violations of civil rights and even deaths while migrants are held.

“This massive infusion of ice funds is super problematic,” said a former employee of the DHS office for civil rights and civil freedoms, who spoke of the state of anonymity due to the fear of the agency’s reprisals. “If we were still there, we would be incredibly busy.”

“More people will die in detention accordingly because there will not be the same level of checks and equits internally. And the American public will not be able to be so indignant because there is no one with whom these complaints,” added the former employee.

Now, with fewer staff, DHS said that the offices were working; It was not immediately clear how many employees still work in each office.

Effort to reduce federal workforce

During the year 2025, at least 15 people died in ice detention, out of more than 59,000 people in immigration detention. This is the highest detention total in the last six years of ice data accessible to the public and it is the counting of the highest deaths since 18 people died during the 2020 financial year.

Deaths represent a tiny fraction of global detainees. But he does not grasp other problems with prisoners may be confronted. Throughout the country, the defenders of the media and immigration reported overcrowding, conditions and unsanitary problems with access to food and health care – a by -product of a rapid increase in immigration arrests.

“It is difficult to know when things are stopped in the middle, unexpectedly, what a work really continues,” said Katerina Hérodotou, a main political advisor at CRCL who was dismissed.

She said detainees could see posters with the Hotline CRCL to call, and that listed what rights they have, something that “might not seem much, but could make a huge difference for someone who suffers abuses or discrimination in prison,” she said. She fears that the posters that were previously have been deleted – something that NPR could not check immediately.

Earlier this year, more than 300 people in the three DHS surveillance divisions were warned that their job was reduced in the context of a wider effort to reduce the size of the federal government.

The supervisory offices were created by the congress to provide internal exams and to bring together external complaints related to the application of immigration.

Even the existing mechanisms were imperfect, since they were one of the agencies that they were supposed to police, according to the defenders of immigration.

“These surveillance organizations already had a limited authority and power to change the system,” said Jesse Franzblau, associate director of policies at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “But the abolition of these limited surveillance mechanisms that were in place has left the door open to expansion in a very secret way which has allowed a lack of responsibility,” he said about the increase in the space of detention.

Old guard dogs warn against the potential for death and abuse

Former employees interviewed by NPR say they play an essential role in avoiding violations of civil rights in the application of immigration – not just approaching them. For example, some former surveillance employees would help to approve local law enforcement agencies that wanted to associate with ICE, according to Herodotou.

“(I was) looking to know whether the law enforcement organizations that were associated with ICE in the context of this program followed the protocols and did not use the program to racially benefit from individuals or to get out of the agreement with ice with regard to civil freedoms and civil rights,” said Hérodotou.

She also worked on a project to change the language used by the agency in its interviews with those who apply in order to better identify the victims of the trafficking in human beings. Now, she is worried, none of the work to review the agency’s programs, or the annual reports compensated by the Congress, is done.

Another former employee remembers regular visits to customs detention centers and border protection and meetings with detained children, to monitor conditions and raise concerns about harassment or health care.

The former employee of the Ombudsman of the Ombudsman of Immigration Detention also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, and said that surveillance staff were often the only foreigners to which detainees could appeal.

“The humanitarian provisions of internal policies and procedures are probably not respected. I believe that,” said the former employee.

NPR could not check independently how much surveillance is provided by the remaining employees in the supervisory offices. Immigration defenders say they were not able to follow either.

The congress requires that CRCL publishes two reports per year: a semi -annual report and an annual report based on the previous year. It does not seem that a semi-annual report has been published this year. The annual report is due later this winter.

Employee surveillance seeks to be restored

About 86 former employees of the DHS in these supervisory offices joined a legal challenge tabled at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the independent Federal Agency which intends to complaints of employees against the government.

“The first argument is that the agency does not have the legal power to abolish the functions required by the Congress, although they still claim to exercise these functions; they have not provided any evidence,” said Marlene Laimeche, one of the lawyers for the case to Gilbert Employment Law.

“These are people who pick cherries to carry out crucial functions that will transform the government into a machine to execute what the president’s priorities are any day without any type of surveillance, without the appropriate balance and checks on the presidential power,” she added.

Legal challenges, including a distinct federal trial brought by non -profit organizations, could take months, at best. Meanwhile, the defenders of surveillance fear that their absence can exacerbate the conditions of detention.

“It is not a risk, it is a reality. We have already seen the treatment of the individuals encountered, arrested and detained,” said Herodotou, adding that his office had increased complaints when the employees were reduced in March.

“More detention misfortunes, people with health problems in detention, detention deaths,” she predicted. “I don’t know if there is an avenue for anyone to get this aid.”