A new investigation reveals that the Department of Homeland Security’s internal civil rights watchdog system has been dismantled to the point of near-collapse, just as the Trump administration accelerates aggressive immigration enforcement. 

Hundreds of oversight officials were fired, slashing the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties from 150 staff to just nine. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and partners have sued to reinstate the fired staff, arguing that the administration is paving the way to “abuse people with impunity” as it expands the immigration detention system.

Vice President of U.S Advocacy and Litigation, Anthony Enriquez, said, “They want to be able to operate a system that doesn’t have any rules and that can be used to maximize brutality against people, in order to accomplish a mass deportation agenda.”

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