On March 21, 2025, Allison Posner received a “Reduction in Force” notice informing her that her position as chief of external relations at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman was being abolished. Her termination was the result of the “dissolution” of the watchdog office, which handled complaints about conditions and treatment in detention facilities. She was among some 110 full-time OIDO staff who were put on a 60-day administrative leave. “You will be separated from DHS at the close of business on May 23, 2025,” the letter stated.

Posner, a one-time immigration attorney, had joined DHS during the Obama years to work in the ombudsman’s office for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency in charge of visas, work authorizations, and other immigration benefits. Then, in 2019, Congress established another office to carry out independent and neutral oversight of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities and investigate potential misconduct and detainees’ rights violations. Posner was tasked with helping set up this new detention watchdog.

OIDO was supposed to be separate from ICE and CBP while still answering directly to the Homeland Security secretary. It was also designed to complement the oversight work of other department bodies, such as the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and the Office of Inspector General. Crucially, the office placed on-site inspectors and case managers inside detention centers where they could hear complaints directly from detainees and more immediately address their grievances.

“We went into facilities, talked to people, and solved their individual problems,” Posner said. “For the first time, it wasn’t that people in detention would file a complaint by mailing off a form to Washington. They would simply look for someone from our team who was visiting their facility every week or every other week and just talk to a person in real life.”

“We were getting to a place where we were doing it well, but now there’s no one doing it at all, and that’s the part that’s particularly heartbreaking.”

But after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Posner witnessed his administration gut the detention ombudsman’s office she had played a role in getting off the ground. It all culminated in this month’s announcement, first reported by the........

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