What is an Ombudsman, and Why Should I Care if it's Shut Down?
- Katharine Speer Rosenthal
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
On March 21st, three Ombudsman offices that oversee immigration agencies were effectively closed. All staff, except some senior staff, were placed on 60-day administrative leave.
Closing this office means that if the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) makes a mistake on your case or misapplies the law, our only options are (1) to appeal the denial or (2) to ask a Congressional office to communicate with USCIS on your behalf.
Appeals are not available in all cases, and even when they are available, we have to wait for USCIS to deny your application before we can file an appeal. Appeals are notoriously slow. In the past, the average appeal decision time has been 2 years. We fully expect that to increase as USCIS denies more cases, and the Ombudsman's office is not available to help us resolve issues before they result in a denial.
Congressional offices can only send questions with USCIS on behalf of constituents. They cannot pressure USCIS to take any specific actions, and they have no authority or expertise to make recommendations to USCIS to address systemic problems, as the Ombudsman's office does.
This office accepts complaints of civil rights abuses by all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies. It also keeps records of alleged civil rights abuses and creates public reports to keep the agencies accountable.
Some of the DHS agencies include Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).
The shuttering of this office means the only entity providing any accountability for these agencies' abuses of an individual's civil rights or civil liberties is Congress.
This is an independent office within DHS that oversees immigration detention conditions and the treatment of people detained by ICE and CBP.
Tens of thousands of people are detained by these agencies on any given day, and this administration has made it clear they want to increase these numbers. Whenever detention facilities are stressed, abuses and poor conditions are more likely to occur.
By effectively closing the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, the administration has removed a major source of oversight and increased the likelihood that people in immigration detention will be mistreated and their rights will be violated.
Why should I care?
The effective closure of these three Ombudsman offices represents a significant blow to the oversight and accountability of immigration agencies.
Without these watchdogs, individuals navigating the immigration system will have fewer avenues for recourse when facing errors, abuses, or unjust treatment, just at a time when immigrants in this country are under attack from all directions.
The dismantling of oversight mechanisms severely limits transparency and erodes protections for immigrants, leaving them with fewer options and less hope for justice.
This sets a dangerous precedent of weakened accountability, making it easier for rights violations and government overreach to go unchecked. When any group’s protections are eroded, it threatens the fairness and integrity of the system for all.
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