Civil rights groups sue to restore jobs at Homeland Security oversight offices that were gutted

WASHINGTON – Three advocacy groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem, seeking to restore unit jobs astatine 3 gutted offices that oversee civilian rights protections crossed the department's wide mission.

The suit was filed Thursday by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, and the Urban Justice Center.

On March 21, Homeland Security said it was implementing a simplification successful unit astatine the 3 offices: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman.

When asked astir the suit Thursday, section officials said they're “committed to civilian rights protections” but called the 3 offices a roadblock.

“These offices person obstructed migration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission,” the section said.

Democrats person suggested that the cuts were astir removing transparency astatine the department, which is cardinal to the Trump administration's wide deportation efforts.

The groups suing connected Thursday said that due to the fact that Congress acceptable up the offices, lone Congress tin shutter them.

They're asking the tribunal to unit Homeland Security to instantly rehire the unit and fto them bash their oversight jobs without interference.

The 3 offices are cardinal to migration oversight, but the jobs spell beyond that. Homeland Security is the country's third-largest Cabinet agency, with responsibilities for airdrome security, protecting the president and different apical leaders, and responding to disasters.

The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, with the ngo of protecting civilian liberties successful the section created successful the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. It investigates hundreds of complaints a twelvemonth astir the agency’s ngo and recommends changes arsenic necessary.

The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman is an autarkic bureau wrong Homeland Security — not connected to either Immigration and Customs Enforcement oregon Customs and Border Protection. Its occupation is to marque definite migration detention facilities are harmless and humane. Staff regularly visited detention facilities to bash things specified arsenic making definite detainees person due aesculapian care. According to the lawsuit, unit visited implicit 100 detention facilities each month.

The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman is liable for helping radical oregon businesses resoluteness issues with the bureau that oversees migration benefits. According to the lawsuit, it handled astir 24,000 requests for assistance during fiscal twelvemonth 2023 done its online portal. Those requests tin scope from helping a concern fig retired wherefore an H-1B visa renewal is taking truthful agelong to helping idiosyncratic who applies for a greenish paper oregon enactment licence fig retired wherefore it was rejected.

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