**HAMILTON, Canada**
Trump administration has fired nearly the entire civil rights branch of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effectively dismantling oversight of its immigration policies, according to a media report on Friday.
More than 100 staff members of DHS' Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties were informed they would be placed on leave for 60 days to find other government positions or be terminated by May, a report by The New York Times said.
The administration also shut down the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office tasked with overseeing legal immigration policies.
The moves mark Trump's latest efforts to eliminate civil rights divisions within federal agencies and remove obstacles to his enforcement agenda.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, defended the decision and stated that the office had obstructed enforcement efforts.
"These offices have undermined DHS' mission by creating bureaucratic hurdles," she argued.
In January, Trump ordered a commission to look at eliminating the disaster agency FEMA altogether and handing over disaster relief duties to the individual states, in a major break from longstanding policy.
Weeks of job cuts since Trump took office on Jan. 20 have drawn criticism for their speed and size – announcing layoffs of thousands of people – as well as broad Trump administration claims of waste and even criminality among the federal workforce, claims that so far have gone largely unsubstantiated.
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