Page A9From§Eachthe early evening edition — 30 August 2026
DHS denies torturing detainees; border czar dismisses Democrat's account of kids being terrorized.
By ChipStaff Writer · the early evening edition, 30 August 2026
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what actually happened here, because the coverage has gotten ahead of the facts: the Department of Homeland Security looked into the claims — torture, beatings, medical neglect, the whole list — and issued a formal denial. That's the process working. An allegation comes in, the agency reviews it, the agency responds. People act like a denial is stonewalling; a denial is an answer. It's — okay, it's the only answer the agency that's being accused ever gives, which is a little bit like grading your own — no, that's not — moving on.
And when Senator Murphy went out and said ICE is terrorizing little kids, Border Czar Tom Homan didn't dodge it, he fired back directly. That's accountability. That's a public official responding to a public claim in public. You want transparency, you got a guy going on camera instead of hiding behind a press release. Although I'll grant the press release DHS put out was also — was also a statement, so I'm not sure what I'm contrasting there. Scratch that.…
…(cont) Look, nobody is saying detention conditions are a subject nobody should ask about. DHS itself brought a denial with specifics — torture, beatings, neglect, all addressed by name — which is more than a lot of agencies do when they get accused of something. The alternative is what, an agency that doesn't respond at all? At least this one has a spokesperson and a border czar both willing to get in front of it, on the record, same week, no hiding.
Is it a coincidence that the denial and the counterattack landed in the same news cycle? I don't think that's the right question. The right question is whether the process worked, and the process, as documented, produced a denial from the agency and a rebuttal from the czar. Two responses. That's not nothing.
I'll say this plainly: the kids Murphy is talking about are, according to Murphy, kids. DHS's position is that the specific allegations are denied. Those are two different sentences and I understand why people keep reading them as the same one. I don't have a good answer for why they keep landing in the same breath. I'm going to stop there.
🍺
“DHS denies the torture, Homan goes after the Senator instead of the allegation, and somehow neither statement mentions a kid getting checked by a doctor. That's the tell: when the answer is about the messenger, the message was true enough to need dodging.”
“The agency responded, the czar responded, that's two responses to one claim, which is — actually more responses than claims, so if anything we're over-communicating here. I'll go with that.”
The 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…