With the Department of Homeland Security operating under a funding lapse, a Texas Democrat says families and attorneys are encountering new hurdles in trying to find people held by immigration authorities, while questions persist about how Congress can conduct detention oversight during the shutdown.
The Department of Homeland Security has been operating under a lapse in appropriations, and a Democratic lawmaker from Texas says the disruption is making it harder for families to determine where relatives are being held by immigration authorities and to obtain timely information about detainees’ medical needs.
Rep. Julie Johnson, a Dallas-area Democrat, said her office has heard from constituents who could not locate family members after they were taken into immigration custody, or who struggled to get information about medical treatment. Johnson argued that detainees’ families should be able to obtain basic custody and location information regardless of a funding lapse and that members of Congress must be able to carry out oversight of federal detention operations.
Johnson’s concerns follow scrutiny of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention practices after the death of Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, a 41-year-old Afghan immigrant whose family and a veterans’ resettlement group said had worked alongside U.S. forces before being evacuated to the United States. Paktyawal died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas after being detained by ICE, and the Dallas County medical examiner had not publicly reported a cause of death as of mid-March, according to the Associated Press.
The Department of Homeland Security said Paktyawal complained of shortness of breath and chest pain during an intake exam at a Dallas ICE field office and was transported to the hospital, where he later died. DHS has said that people in ICE custody are not denied access to medical care. ICE also said Paktyawal had been arrested previously on allegations including SNAP benefits fraud and theft; prosecutors in Dallas County said a SNAP-fraud case was pending, the AP reported.
Separately, coverage of the shutdown has highlighted concerns that some DHS oversight functions may be curtailed during a funding lapse even as immigration enforcement continues. During a previous shutdown in the fall, DHS said ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight was shut down, and reporting at the time said the unit was furloughed.
Advocates and former officials have also warned that internal civil-rights oversight inside DHS has been reduced in recent months, potentially limiting the department’s ability to investigate complaints related to immigration enforcement and detention conditions.
