The DHS Just Got Rid of its Own ICE Detentions Watchdog

Ever since he took the helm at the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin has made a habit of running a more understated deportation project compared to his predecessor, Kristi Noem. (Given ICE Barbie couldn’t go a minute without splashing out on some tacky campaign, this wasn’t that hard to do.) But while Mullin’s approach has been less grimly theatrical than Noem’s… it’s definitely been creepier. 

On Monday, the Huffington Post revealed that per an internal DHS email, the DHS is quietly shuttering its Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), which specifically focuses on misconduct and abuse across ICE detention centers. Per records, the office is apparently in the process of ending its inspections, and its public website—which usually provides guidance for families and attorneys to file complaints about detainee abuse—vanished as of Monday. 

NEWSMAX: Are we staying strong on the idea of deportations for all illegals, or have we moved to criminal illegal aliens as the focus?

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: No. We’re staying focused on all illegals, without question. Truth is, we’re purposely trying to be a little more quiet. pic.twitter.com/8cx7bF6IQx

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 6, 2026

 

Now, closing an internal government office responsible for monitoring said government’s abuses is never a good sign. But it’s an especially alarming move given the number of immigrants dying in ICE detention is at a record high, kids are penning gut-wrenching letters saying they’re being treated like prisoners, and ICE prison-guard whistleblowers are revealing that the conditions are far worse than reported. And it’s through various and multiple investigations that we’ve heard ICE is literally caging detainees, serving them inedible food, and shackling women who are pregnant or miscarrying. Currently, more than 60,000 people are in ICE detention.

Speaking to HuffPost, a department spokesperson said, “DHS did not shutdown [sic] the Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman — Congress did. The House passed the DHS appropriations bill without objection, and it was signed into law last week.” Which seems… fishy. April’s bill to fund DHS never mentions anything about closing the ombudsman’s office, and thanks to Trump’s spending bill from last summer, the DHS has had no shortage of cash flow—part of the reason why it ran as normal during the recent partial government shutdown. (ICE received more than $75 million through this law.) 

And if Mullin’s DHS did—indeed—close OIDO on the department’s own terms, that would be, um, illegal. “It’s right there in the law: Congress created this office, so only Congress can take it away,” Adam Isaacson, who works at the Washington Office on Latin America, told HuffPost. “If you’re trying to make detention as miserable as possible—because you believe, in some twisted way, that that’s a deterrent—then you’re going to do what you can to get rid of the ombudsman’s office, because that would have been a source of friction for you.”

Still, we could have probably seen this coming. Earlier this year, an independent POGO report revealed that the number of ICE inspections into its own facilities took a nosedive in 2025, seeing a more-than-36% decline compared to the previous year. And while Congress used to issue a biannual report on data about pregnant immigrants in facilities from 2019 to 2025, the requirement lapsed in March—leading to a total black box on how detentions treat pregnant people. And in March, the Guardian revealed that OIDO—who employed nearly 118 people in 2025—only had five people left in its office. 

Speaking to Newsmax on Tuesday, Mullin said of his DHS that while the department’s still focusing on all the horrible bits it did during Noem’s tenure, they’re “purposely trying to be a little bit more quiet,” adding that he wants “to get DHS out of the headlines so our ICE agents, our CBP agents…could go do their job without being harassed by the media.” Welp. I guess shutting down the one office that monitored the abuses is one way to do it.