OIDO auto-replies that it can no longer receive complaints, in response to an urgent complaint about a transgender detainee's medical care

Counsel at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights emailed OIDO at oido_outreach@hq.dhs.gov with a complaint captioned "URGENT: Notification of Need to Accommodate Complex Medical Needs of Transgender Trafficking Survivor," concerning a client held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana — a transgender woman certified by the New Orleans Police Department as a sex- and labor-trafficking victim, HIV-positive with a history of AIDS and tuberculosis, who had recently completed vaginoplasty with orchiectomy and required ongoing post-operative gynecological care. The sworn declaration states that since her March 2025 detention she received only interrupted access to HIV and hormone medication, no colon-cancer screening her physician had ordered, and no post-operative care — facility medical staff told her in May 2025 they were "not equipped" and had "no understanding of post-operative care for gender reassignment surgery." OIDO's mailbox returned an automatic reply: "Thank you for contacting the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO). We are no longer able to receive and/or address complaints." Counsel also declared that a GEO Group regional health services manager told him in July 2025 that OIDO officers had previously resolved detainee medical issues on site without formal complaints, that facilities had received no OIDO communications "for months," and that the only remaining option was to contact ICE directly.