DHS Axed Its Civil Rights Staff—And Opened the Door to a Major Lawsuit
Rodney Taylor, a double amputee, was denied the care he needed for his prosthetics—causing the silicone lining of one of his legs to deteriorate, along with bone spurs in his back. Down in Texas, DACA recipient Javier Diaz Santana, who is Deaf, was denied access to an American Sign Language interpreter for weeks.
On February 2, 22 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem interrogating the agency’s compliance with disability civil rights law—namely, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act—across its departments, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A similar letter in August, raising concerns that ICE’s treatment of disabled people may violate disability civil rights laws, was ignored beyond confirmation of receipt, according to the office of House Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Ca.), one of the signatories.
In one important respect, the February letter is different: it highlights the fact that staffing for DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Liberties (CRCL) and its Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which together oversee the agency’s civil rights complaints, have been reduced by 85 and 91 percent, respectively.
Section 504 prohibits discrimination against........
