Trump slashes homeland security civil rights jobs in 'Black Friday' cuts
WASHINGTON - In a move aimed at reducing “roadblocks” to its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has fired most employees within the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and two separate DHS ombudsman offices, a senior DHS official confirmed late Friday.
The actions come amid other changes at DHS that critics say will curtail oversight of immigration efforts by President Donald Trump even as legal challenges intensify over their constitutionality.
A senior DHS official told USA TODAY that the RIF or “reduction in force” efforts were done “to eliminate redundant and counterproductive roles while reallocating resources to frontline enforcement, where they are most effective.”
Also being cut were the DHS Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, said the official.
DHS officials would not say how many employees had been cut and how many remain, and whether their mission is changing to align with Trump’s press for deporting what he says are dangerous undocumented immigrants in the country illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has traveled the country, personally participating in raids to get what she calls "these dirtbags" off the street.
“DHS remains committed to civil rights protections but must streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement,” the official said in a statement. “These reductions ensure taxpayer dollars support the Department’s core mission: border security and immigration enforcement.”
The official also suggested that the offices were cut because of their potentially oppositional roles.
“These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission,” the official said. “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”
The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties website spells out in detail how the unit was created, in large part, to investigate “complaints from the public alleging violations of civil rights and civil liberties in DHS activities.”
The agency also provides policy advice to DHS on various civil rights and civil liberties issues, including antidiscrimination, community engagement, immigration and security, intelligence, and information policy.
A third function of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Division, helps DHS enforce compliance with EEO laws, regulations, and mandates. It also looks into complaints about potential violations.
The two ombudsman offices are also responsible for overseeing the legal immigration policies of the Trump administration.
The Immigration Detention Ombudsman office is a guardrail at DHS against overly aggressive or illegal actions. It is independent of the DHS components over which it conducts oversight, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and serves to prevent abuses at those agencies and to protect the rights of detained aliens and their representatives, its website says.
The Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman office serves in a similar independent oversight capacity to prevent abuses within the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It also serves as a liaison between the public and DHS on all citizenship and immigration matters.
A 'recipe for disaster'
Michelle Brané, who served in the Biden administration as the immigration detention ombudsman within DHS, called the cuts a "recipe for disaster."
Brané said she believes roughly 200 people lost their jobs in what she called "Black Friday" cuts.
"They're eliminating all the oversight bodies within the Department of Homeland Security at a time when they are being more aggressive than ever and making more mistakes than ever," Brané said. "I think we'll see people die in custody as a result."
Brané said oversight doesn't necessarily slow down enforcement and helps ensure taxpayers are getting their money's worth from contractors while detainees are treated humanely.
She said in one instance, her team discovered that repeated complaints about food at a Louisiana detention facility stemmed from a contractor feeding adult male detainees a diet designed for women.
"They were short several hundred calories a day and we were able to fix that immediately," Brané said.
Josh Meyer is USA TODAY's Domestic Security Correspondent. You can reach him by email at jmeyer@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @JoshMeyerDC and Bluesky at @joshmeyerdc.bsky.social.