ICE Shuts Down Watchdog Office Amid Soaring Abuse and Use of Force in Detention Centers

The Trump administration has quietly closed the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, an independent agency tasked with investigating complaints of abuse, excessive force, and civil rights violations inside ICE detention centers. This shutdown comes at a time when the use of force against detainees has exploded, with more than 780 documented incidents since Trump’s return to the White House—a 37 percent increase from the previous year.

The Ombudsman’s office, which operates outside the Department of Homeland Security, provided a rare avenue for detainees and their families to report mistreatment. Its closure was attributed in an internal email to a lack of funding in the Homeland Security appropriations bills, though the legislation does not explicitly mandate the shutdown. DHS spokespeople have deflected responsibility onto Congress, claiming the House passed the appropriations bill without objection. Meanwhile, the office’s public website, a crucial resource for filing complaints, has gone offline.

This dismantling of oversight fits a disturbing pattern under Trump’s immigration enforcement regime. The administration is detaining nearly 70,000 people at any time, with numbers reaching a record 73,000 earlier this year. This surge accompanies a sharp rise in the use of physical and chemical force against detainees, as well as a grim death toll—over 30 deaths in 2025, the deadliest year for ICE detainees in more than two decades, and at least 18 deaths so far in 2026.

Staffing for the Ombudsman’s office had already been decimated, shrinking by 96 percent to just five employees by December. Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office on Latin America interprets the closure as part of a deliberate strategy to make detention conditions so miserable that immigrants give up on their cases. “If you’re trying to make detention as miserable as possible because you believe that’s a deterrent, you’re going to get rid of the ombudsman’s office,” Isaacson told HuffPost.

Meanwhile, lawsuits continue to expose brutal and unsanitary conditions inside ICE facilities, including inadequate medical care, lack of access to legal counsel, and the mistreatment of children. Despite these realities, Homeland Security officials defend their detention practices as “non-punitive” and assert that detention is a choice, pushing the narrative of “self-deportation.”

Looking ahead, ICE plans to expand detention capacity to hold nearly 100,000 people daily to meet its goal of arresting and removing 1 million immigrants annually. DHS acknowledges that increasing detention bed space is “critical” to avoiding “bottlenecks” in deportations.

Shutting down the Ombudsman’s office removes a vital check on the agency’s abuses at a moment when oversight is needed more than ever. This administration is doubling down on a system built on cruelty and opacity, with deadly consequences for those trapped inside.