When Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock was an immigration attorney, she would tell clients in detention to look for the hummingbird logo.
The hummingbird floated on the tablets of case managers working for the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, one of three oversight offices at the Homeland Security Department.
Along with those from the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, these government employees were supposed to help immigration advocates like Whitlock handle the immediate needs of people in detention. That could be making sure detainees got their necessary medication or a culturally appropriate diet. Or it could be handling complaints about the use of solitary detention, sexual assault or issues with infants in detention.
The Trump administration earlier cut hundreds of staff in these congressionally mandated offices in order to save money and because DHS argued they were "internal adversaries that slow down operations."
This included federal employees who conducted regular visits to detention centers, reviewed and investigated complaints about detention conditions, and prepared reports due to Congress.
"You don't have anyone to turn to," said Whitlock, now senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, a legal advocacy group. Without the offices, immigration advocates are turning to members of Congress to address problems on behalf of their clients.
"That's like a one-time flash bang situation," she said, about outreach to Congress. "That's no way to treat somebody who is having issues."
NPR spoke with four former employees — all part of a lawsuit challenging their terminations — who said they would regularly review DHS immigration-related policies and programs to make sure there were no civil rights violations.
Now, it's unclear who has that role — even as the Trump administration is ramping up detention space provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after a funding boost from Congress this summer.
"DHS CRCL is performing all legally required functions, but in an efficient and cost-effective manner and without hindering the Department's mission of securing the homeland," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, speaking about the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Former agency watchdogs warn that the rapid expansion comes without hundreds of internal employees to oversee it, increasing the risk of civil rights violations and even deaths while migrants are detained.
"This massive infusion of funds to ICE is super problematic," said one former employee of DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the agency. "If we were still there, we would be incredibly busy."
"More people are going to die in custody as a result because there are not going to be the same level of checks and balances internally. And the American public will not be able to be as outraged because there's no one with whom to file these complaints," the former employee added.
Now, with fewer staff, DHS said the offices are working; it was not immediately clear how many employees are still working in each office.
Effort to reduce federal workforce
In fiscal year 2025, at least 15 people died in ICE custody, out of more than 59,000 people in immigration detention. That's the highest detention total in the last six years of publicly available ICE data and it's the highest death count since 18 people died in fiscal year 2020.
The deaths represent a tiny fraction of overall detainees. But it doesn't capture any other issues detainees may face. Across the country, media and immigration advocates have reported overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and issues with food and healthcare access — a byproduct of a rapid scaling-up of immigration arrests.
"It's hard to know when things are stopped in the middle, out of the blue, what work actually continues," said Katerina Herodotou, a senior policy advisor at CRCL who was laid off.
She said detainees could see posters with the CRCL hotline to call, and that listed what rights they have, something that "might not seem like much, but could make a huge difference to someone who's experiencing abuse or discrimination in in a jail," she said. She worries that posters that were up previously may have been removed — something NPR couldn't immediately verify.
Earlier this year, over 300 people across the three oversight divisions of DHS received notice that their jobs were being cut as part of a broader effort to reduce the size of the federal government.
The oversight offices were created by Congress in order to provide internal reviews and gather external complaints related to immigration enforcement.
Even the existing mechanisms were imperfect, given that they were part of the agencies they were supposed to police, immigration advocates say.
"These oversight bodies already had limited authority and power to change the system," said Jesse Franzblau, associate director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center. "But scrapping these limited oversight mechanisms that were in place has left the door open for expansion to happen in a very secretive way that has allowed lack of accountability," he said about the increase in detention space.
Former watchdogs warn of potential for deaths and abuse
The former employees interviewed by NPR say they played a critical role to avoid civil rights violations in immigration enforcement — not just address them. For example, some former oversight employees would help approve local law enforcement agencies who wanted to partner with ICE, according to Herodotou.
"[I was] looking at whether or not the law enforcement agencies that were partnered with ICE under that program were following the protocols and not using the program to racially profile individuals or to go outside the bounds of what the agreement with ICE was in regard to civil liberties and civil rights," Herodotou said.
She also worked on a project to change the language the agency used in its interviews with those applying in order to help better identify victims of human trafficking. Now, she worries none of the work to review the agency's programs, or congressionally-mandated annual reports, is getting done.
Another former employee recalls regular visits to Customs and Border Protection detention centers and meetings with detained children, to monitor conditions and raise concerns about any harassment or lapses in health care.
The former employee of the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman also spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, and said oversight staff were often the only outsiders any detainees could appeal to.
"The humanitarian provisions in internal policies and procedures are very likely not being abided by. I do believe that," the former employee said.
NPR couldn't independently verify how much oversight is provided by the remaining employees in the oversight offices. Immigration advocates say they have also been unable to keep track.
Congress requires that CRCL issue two reports per year: a semi-annual report and a yearly report based on the previous fiscal year. It does not appear that a semi-annual report has been published this year. The annual report is due later this winter.
Oversight employees seek to be reinstated
About 86 former DHS employees in these oversight offices have joined a legal challenge filed to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the independent federal agency that hears employee complaints against the government.
"The first argument is that the agency does not have legal authority to abolish the functions that are required by Congress, although they claim to still be carrying out those functions; they have not provided any evidence," said Marlene Laimeche, one of the attorneys on the case at Gilbert Employment Law.
"They are cherry-picking people to perform crucial functions that will turn the government into a machine to execute what the president's priorities are any given day without any type of oversight, without the proper balance and checks on presidential power," she added.
Legal challenges, including a separate federal lawsuit brought by nonprofits, could take months, at best. In the meantime, oversight advocates worry their absence could exacerbate conditions in detention.
"It's not a risk, it's a reality. We've already seen the treatment of individuals being encountered, arrested and detained," Herodotou said, adding that her office experienced an increase in complaints just as employees were being cut back in March.
"More detention woes, people with health issues in detention, deaths in detention," she predicted. "I don't know if there's an avenue for anyone to get that help anymore."
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