Tom Homan pushed back on claims ICE targeted parents at a school bus stop in Danbury, Connecticut, as DHS called the allegation politically motivated.
Page A8From§Eachthe supper edition — 30 August 2026
DHS denies torture and beatings in ICE detention; deportees recount both after removal to Liberia.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what the Department of Homeland Security actually said, which is that reports of torture, beatings, and medical neglect in ICE detention are — and I want to get this exactly right — denied. Fully. Categorically. The agency reviewed the allegations and found them without merit, which is the kind of finding agencies reach when they review their own conduct, and there is nothing unusual about that, agencies review themselves all the time, that's what — actually, that's not really how oversight is supposed to — let me back up.
The border czar was equally direct, firing back at a senator who called what's happening to children in custody 'terrorizing,' calling the characterization false, unfair, politically motivated. And it is politically motivated, senators say things about immigration enforcement for political reasons, that's simply how the debate works, both sides do it, both sides characterize things, both sides — well, one side is describing conditions and the other side is denying them, so it isn't exactly symmetrical, but the instinct to say both sides is strong around here and I'm going to go with it.…
…(cont) What I can tell you is that the deportees who were sent to Liberia and are now describing their treatment in detail, at length, on the record, to reporters, are of course free to describe whatever they experienced. Nobody is disputing their right to speak. The agency's position is simply that the description does not match the agency's own account of the agency's own conduct, and when those two accounts diverge, the correct institutional response is to note that a review is ongoing, findings are pending, and further comment would be premature — which is what I was told to say, and which I am saying, on the record, as instructed.
The detention conditions themselves have not changed as a result of the denial. That part isn't spin, that's just the calendar: the statement was issued, the facility operated as before, the deportees who'd already left had already left. The denial addressed the allegations. It did not address the conditions. Those are different things, and I recognize I probably shouldn't have said that part out loud either.
“They deny the beatings the same week the people who got beaten are describing them by name, by date, from Liberia. A denial isn't evidence that nothing happened, it's evidence somebody's lawyer got there first.”
“The department's position is that all allegations are being reviewed through proper channels, and until findings are issued, nothing reported should be considered — I mean, the deportees are describing specific incidents, so 'nothing happened' might be overstating it, but the review is ongoing.”
The receipts
The UN torture rapporteur found direct-contact electric shock gloves "incompatible with the absolute prohibition of torture" - ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on them ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026
DHS denies reports of torture, beatings and medical neglect in ICE detentionThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Sunday denied a report in The New York Times about harsh treatment of migrants in immigration detention facilities. “Another day and another hoax about ICE detention from the @nytimes,” DHS…
Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.