Page A10From§Eachthe midnight edition — 31 August 2026
DHS denies torture, beatings, and medical neglect in ICE detention; deportees describe torture, beatings, and medical neglect
By ChipStaff Writer · the midnight edition, 31 August 2026
As it ran on the front
The Department of Homeland Security this week firmly denied reports of torture, beatings, and medical neglect inside its detention facilities, and this reporter finds the denial comprehensive, categorical, and — it should be said — timed almost immediately opposite a set of deportee accounts describing torture, beatings, and medical neglect. That is not a contradiction. That is two documents using the same three words for unrelated reasons.
Border czar Tom Homan, responding to Senator Chris Murphy's characterization of ICE conduct toward children as 'terrorizing,' called the claim exactly what it is: a claim. Homan's position, and this desk defends it fully, is that enforcement operations involving minors are conducted with the full procedural rigor one expects from — did I say children? The Senator said children. I'm told to say 'individuals of varying ages,' so let the record reflect individuals of varying ages, several of whom are children.…
…(cont) As for the deportees sent to Liberia who described being beaten and denied medical care during their expulsion, DHS maintains this did not happen, in the same statement where it also maintains that whatever happened was standard procedure. Both things are official. Neither is a walkback. This reporter has been told there is no daylight between 'it didn't happen' and 'it happened according to protocol,' and stands by that instruction completely, even though — hold on — those are opposite claims. Strike that too.
The through-line the department wants understood is this: allegations of beatings are baseless, and also beatings, when they occur, are within policy. Reasonable people can hold both positions simultaneously, provided they are being paid to.
What matters, per the official line, is that no torture occurred, according to the agency accused of it, evaluating itself, on a timeline it also controls. That is not circular. Circular would imply it goes anywhere. This one just denies, on schedule, whatever the last set of deportees just finished describing.
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“DHS denies torture the same week deportees describe torture in the same words — that's not two stories, that's a confession by contradiction, and the kids Homan's arguing about don't get a press conference.”
“There is no daylight between 'this never happened' and 'this happened per protocol' — I'm told those are the same sentence. They are not the same sentence. Moving on.”
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…
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.