Immigrant detention watchdog shuts down as reports of abuse and use of force surge

The US government has shut down the only independent office tasked with investigating abuse in immigration detention centers, even as use of force against detainees surges and private prison corporations profit from what advocates describe as forced labor. The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman—required by law—has gone dark, leaving tens of thousands of people with no formal avenue to report abuse, coercion, or exploitation.

A surveillance gap that puts detainees in danger

The ombudsman’s closure removes a critical layer of oversight from this system. An internal email seen by HuffPost attributes the shutdown to funding gaps in the Homeland Security appropriations bill. However, nothing in the bill’s text required the closure. By December 2024, the office had already been reduced to just five staff, a 96 percent reduction. Now it is gone entirely, its public-facing complaints website taken offline.

The timing could not be more consequential. The detention population has hit a record 73,000 people, with ICE planning to expand capacity to 99,000 by 2027. Meanwhile, use of force is climbing sharply. More and more detainees are reporting detention center staff using physical force or chemical agents, such as pepper spray, on detainees in response to hunger strikes or detainees asking for things which they are legally entitled to, like water and medical care.

Reportedly, the number of detainees subjected to force surged to 1,330—a 54% increase from the previous year under the previous administration. And just as the only office where families and attorneys could file complaints was shut down.

More than 30 people died in ICE detention in 2025—the deadliest year for detainees in over two decades. At least 18 have died so far this year.

Conditions worsen as accountability disappears

Allegations about detention centers include unsanitary facilities, lack of access to legal counsel, disease outbreaks, and inadequate medical care, including for children.

The Independent reports,

Lawsuits across the country allege brutal conditions inside ICE detention centers, which the agency says are designed to be “non-punitive” facilities. Yet many of those facilities rely on the same tools and tactics inside prisons and jails holding people with criminal records.

Lawsuits filed across the country paint a troubling picture of detention conditions.

One advocate said the closure, “fits in with a larger strategy here, of trying to get people to give up on their immigration cases—and give up on their asylum cases—by holding out the threat of detention and making sure that that detention will be in the most miserable conditions possible.”

In the US, slavery is permitted as punishment for crime. But immigration detention is a civil system, where people are not supposed to be punished at all. Yet the resemblance to the prison system goes further. Many detainees are held in facilities run by private prison corporations, including GEO Group—ICE’s single largest contractor. GEO pays detainees as little as one dollar per day for essential labor such as cooking and industrial laundry, while charging them up to $11.02 for a single tube of toothpaste. Detainees who refuse work assignments risk solitary confinement, loss of phone access, and retaliation that can affect their immigration cases.

Without the ombudsman’s office, there is now no independent body to receive those complaints. That’s why public pressure and vigilance matters more than ever. Freedom United is calling on GEO Group to end forced labor in its detention facilities. Adding your name to the campaign sends a direct message that profiteering from coerced labor— behind closed doors and without oversight—is not acceptable. Join the call today.