March 19: Webinar on 1 year since DHS CRCL/OIDO dismantling, with WOLA, KBI and guests
Adam Isacson
Denouncing Into the Void: The Dismantling of Internal Oversight and Accountability at DHS
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET Thursday, 19 March 2026 - Register here
Join the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) for a webinar presenting our new joint report.
One year ago, on March 21, the Trump administration fired nearly all staff at two Department of Homeland Security offices responsible for investigating human rights abuse complaints against CBP, Border Patrol, and ICE. (A third agency, also slashed, oversaw human rights issues in the immigration system.)
Today, the functions of the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and the Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) are barely being fulfilled—even as mass deportation policies and record enforcement budgets have produced a torrent of new allegations: misuse of force, deaths in detention, racial profiling, and more.
Our organizations—KBI on the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, WOLA in Washington, DC—have worked together to document this loss of internal accountability. Our report finds these watchdog agencies, flawed and under-resourced as they were, needed to be strengthened, not dismantled.
Speakers:
- Adam Isacson, Director for Defense Oversight, Washington Office on Latin America
- Juan Cuéllar, Director of Education and Advocacy, Kino Border Initiative
- Michelle Brané, Executive Director, Together & Free; former Ombudsman for Immigration Detention (OIDO)
- Karla Gilbride, Deputy Director of Litigation, Public Citizen
Moderator:
- Sr. Tracey Horan, SP, Associate Director of Education and Advocacy, Kino Border Initiative
