Lawsuit challenges closure of ‘Immigration Services Ombudsman' and other oversight offices by Trump administration

Time of India

25-04-2025

A lawsuit has been filed in a US district court (district of Columbia) against the US department of homeland security (DHS) challenging the Trump administration's decision to close various offices that helped immigrants.
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The lawsuit was filed by advocacy groups -
Southern Border Communities Coalition
,
Robert F Kennedy Human Rights
and Urban Justice Centre.
The Trump administration has closed three oversight offices, viz: Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman, and Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO). The lawsuit is demanding the restoration of these three offices.
The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office was established by Congress to investigate complaints involving constitutional rights, such as privacy invasions or excessive force used by Border Patrol agents, or facial recognition technology used at airports. The CIS Ombudsman's Office helped immigrants who had problems obtaining work permits or applying for green cards. And the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman monitored conditions in detention facilities and handles complaints involving excessive force, sexual abuse, and inadequate medical care, among other issues, explains a joint press release.
on how the CIS Ombudsman Office helped immigrants – which included students undertaking optional practical training (OPT), H-1B visa holders facing processing delays of their extensions and green-card applicants.
Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com had illustrated, 'In one instance, an engineer from Bangalore had his H-1B extension pending for 11 months despite multiple service requests.
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His employer was considering termination, and he faced losing his home. After the Ombudsman's intervention, approval came within two weeks.'
'Eliminating these three offices both undermines the ability of individuals to rein in the overreach of DHS, and violates the constitutional principle of separation of powers, flouting Congress's express determination that these offices must exist,' said Karla Gilbride, deputy director of Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel on the case.
'The Department of Homeland Security is required by law to review and assess information alleging abuses of civil rights and civil liberties. The decision to shutter these offices is an illegal attempt to undermine key civil rights protections and remove vital accountability mechanisms within DHS at a time when they are sorely needed,' she added.
'The decimation of these offices does not make anyone's lives better or safer – what it does is target the innocent and those who have been placed in vulnerable circumstances.
The closure of these offices is part of the Trump administration's targeting of immigrants in this country and weakening of protections and resources afforded to them. We will continue to use every legal tool we have to protect people and our democracy,' said Skye Perryman, President & CEO of Democracy Forward, which is also representing the advocacy groups in the lawsuit.
"RFK Human Rights has filed complaints with CRCL and OIDO for hundreds of people abused in immigration detention centers across the country, urging investigations into systemic sexual abuse, medical neglect, and deliberate infliction of severe pain amounting to torture,' said Anthony Enriquez, VP of US Advocacy and Litigation, RFK Human Rights.
'Congress created and funded oversight agencies to prevent these abuses and no president has the power to single-handedly rewrite those laws," added Enriquez.
'Border communities have been calling for real accountability as we endure racial profiling, excessive use of force, arbitrary searches and other abuses by border agents, and the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was one of the few paths for us to seek justice for these gross violations of human rights,' said Lilian Serrano, Director of Southern Border Communities Coalition.
She added, 'Shutting down these oversight offices within DHS is a blatant attempt by the Trump Administration to shield the department, including CBP—the nation's largest law enforcement agency—from accountability. The administration cannot erase accountability by dismantling an office Congress created to protect our rights.'
"By gutting and closing these offices, the administration has effectively placed survivors of domestic violence in an untenably dangerous position,' said Alessandra Rosales, supervising attorney of immigration law at Urban Justice Center.
She added, 'The humanitarian remedies created by Congress for immigrant survivors are a crucial tool in their healing and rebuilding. Removing the mechanism for oversight and enforcement of these legal protections will permit agencies to violate with impunity the civil rights of vulnerable people who have already endured unspeakable trauma and tragedy."