Attorney Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher is a former policy adviser at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (DHS-CRCL) and current employee at the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). She has blown the whistle on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of solitary confinement on mentally ill and medically vulnerable adults across the 200+ immigration detention facilities in clear violation of federal laws and detention standards. In 2014, as an attorney working for DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), Ms. Gallagher began raising concerns internally about ICE’s systemic use of solitary confinement on mentally ill and medically vulnerable immigrants in civil detention to CRCL, DHS Office of Inspector General, and the Office of Special Counsel. 

When the agencies failed to adequately address her allegations, Ms. Gallagher also sought assistance from Congress to pursue the issues. Ms. Gallagher, having reported these concerns repeatedly for years only to see abuses from ICE escalate as detention increased under the administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, finally sought to bring public attention to the issue by speaking with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Intercept and NBC News in 2019. 

Increasing congressional oversight and reform efforts, including the introduction of legislation that would end the use of solitary confinement in immigrant detention, helped instigate an audit by DHS OIG in 2021 that validated Ms. Gallagher’s disclosures. The audit found failures to collect, retain, and report data about the use of solitary confinement as well as failures to comply with policies that require considering less restrictive alternatives.

On September 22, 2022, Ms. Gallagher participated in a congressional briefing, concerning ICE’s excessive use of solitary confinement on mentally ill detainees. Held by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and sponsored by Congressman Joaquin Castro, the briefing also featured advocates who were directly impacted by the systemic use of solitary confinement in immigrant detention and a neurologist with expertise in detention health.

Government Accountability Project and Ms. Gallagher together continue to advocate relentlessly for the end of the wrongful and widespread use of solitary confinement in civil immigrant detention.