Quotes & Media Coverage
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Verite News: Legal guide uses immigration work in Louisiana to educate advocates around the country
Tags Share Last month, RFK Human Rights, the Acacia Center for Justice, and the ACLU of Louisiana published a new guide that trains attorneys, advocates, and grassroots organizations on how to provide legal services in immigration detention facilities. Speaking with Verite News, our VP of U.S. Advocacy & Litigation Anthony Enriquez describes the purpose of…
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Boston Globe: Detained Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was one of several sent by ICE to Louisiana. Here’s why.
Tags Share Following the arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, the Boston Globe reports on Öztürk’s detention in a notorious Louisiana ICE facility. Referencing the long history of abuse at the facility, the Globe cites RFK Human Rights’ 2024 “Inside the Black Hole” report, which exposed widespread physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect,…
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Al Jazeera: Mahmoud Khalil case—Judge rules activist’s case can remain in New Jersey
Tags Share Speaking with Al Jazeera, our client Daniel Cortes De La Valle recounts his experience in a notorious Louisiana ICE facility – the same facility where student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil is currently detained. While detained in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Daniel was subjected to horrific abuse, including severe medical neglect, denial…
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The Wall Street Journal: Inside Columbia Student Mahmoud Khalil’s ICE Detention Center
Tags Share As of April 1, student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil remains detained at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, an immigration detention facility more than a thousand miles from where he was arrested. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, attorney Sarah Decker highlights the facility’s isolated location and ICE’s broader pattern of secluding people…
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NBC News: Detained immigrant students sent to remote Louisiana facilities accused of human rights abuses
Tags Share “We met many, many, many people who didn’t have access to lawyers who could help them, didn’t have access to their families, didn’t have access, really, to the outside world.” Speaking with NBC News, our Director of Strategic U.S. Litigation Sarah Gillman describes the long history of human rights violations across Louisiana ICE…
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ProPublica—Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”
Tags Share ProPublica reports on human rights abuses on U.S. deportation flights, including RFK Human Rights’ lawsuit on behalf of African asylum-seekers restrained for hours in the Wrap, a cross between a straitjacket and a sleeping bag that one federal judge has called torture. “Flight attendants were told they would fly rock bands, sports teams…
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Bloomberg Law: Trump DHS Sued by Immigrant Groups Over Non-Citizen Registry
Tags Share On March 31, RFK Human Rights and partner organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to create a national immigrant registry via a long-dormant, WWII-era federal law. Read the full article to learn more.
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CNN: A glimpse at complaints inside Louisiana and Texas ICE detention centers holding Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri
Tags Share As student activists across the country are detained by immigration officials, the long record of abuse at ICE detention facilities is coming to the forefront. Speaking with CNN, attorney Anthony Enriquez describes the “culture of abuse” across Louisiana ICE facilities, including medical neglect, rotten food, extreme isolation, and torture. The article also cites…
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The Buffalo News: Migrant crime wave? Experts and statistics tell a different story
Tags Share President Trump’s claims of a “migrant crime wave” were a constant refrain during his presidential campaign. But as The Buffalo News reports, many studies in recent years have concluded that immigrants – including undocumented immigrants – are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. In this article, RFK Human Rights experts help…
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Documented: A Queer Asylum Seeker’s Detention Nightmare
Tags Share After fleeing persecution in Guyana, a queer immigrant named A.B. was subjected to new trauma – detention in New York’s largest ICE facility, where LGBTQ+ identity is treated as a security risk. Speaking with Documented, our VP of U.S. Advocacy & Litigation Anthony Enriquez comments on the long record of abuse at the…
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WXXI News: Lawsuit targets mail policy at ICE’s detention center in Batavia
Tags Share “ICE’s new mail policy is a flagrant violation of confidentiality and privacy.” On March 10, RFK Human Rights sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility over the facility’s failure to protect the confidentiality of legal mail. Speaking with Rochester Public Radio, attorney Sarah Decker comments on…
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Verite News: Mahmoud Khalil still detained in notorious Louisiana detention center as case is moved to New Jersey
Tags Share Following his arrest earlier this month, student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil remains detained in a notorious Louisiana ICE facility. Speaking with Verite News, attorney Anthony Enriquez calls out Louisiana’s rural, isolated ICE jails and the government’s practice of “forum shopping” immigration cases – arresting someone in a jurisdiction where the case law is…
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