One year in, Trump’s immigration policies continue to violate the law.
Our legal team is fighting back in courtrooms across the country. Your donation makes these cases possible.
With over 30 cases currently pending in federal court, Kennedy Human Rights is fighting the state-sponsored cruelty of Trump’s immigration crackdown. And we’ll need all of our community’s support to keep up in the three years ahead.
Dismantling checks and balances
From firing immigration judges to gutting Congressionally-appointed DHS oversight offices, the Trump administration is concentrating power in the executive branch and leaving immigrants with no recourse.
We defend the rule of law and hold executive authority to account when it attempts to unilaterally rewrite laws that Congress created to protect people from human rights abuses by the federal government.
We challenged Trump’s sudden closure of three oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security, which collectively investigate hundreds of complaints on issues including collection of DNA samples by Border Patrol agents, racial profiling during investigatory stops, and sexual assault in detention facilities.
Holding torture survivors in indefinite immigration detention
People who can’t be deported to their home countries due to risk of torture are trapped behind bars while the administration tries to bribe countries to accept non-nationals.
We challenge the federal government’s use of indefinite detention and unlawful third country removals.
In November 2025, we won a federal court order securing the return of Britania, a transgender woman unlawfully deported to Mexico despite an immigration judge’s finding that she was likely to be persecuted or tortured there. Britania remains in immigration detention and both her lawsuits, filed with the ACLU of Louisiana and the National Immigration Project, are pending before the district court. We also challenged a secret, illegal agreement between the U.S. and El Salvador that allows people deported from the U.S.—including asylum seekers, longtime residents, and even U.S. citizens—to be indefinitely detained in a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison under brutal conditions.
Locking up vulnerable longtime residents in mandatory detention
ICE is expanding mandatory detention to vulnerable youth and people with serious medical conditions, regardless of how long they’ve lived in the US.
Immigration detention was never meant to be punitive; it’s meant to address genuine flight risk or danger to the community prior to removal.
When the government violates the Due Process Clause by detaining people who pose no such risk—as it did with 18-year-old Carlos Guerra Leon—we take them to court.
Unlawful surveillance
ICE is expanding surveillance of people with 24/7 ankle monitors in direct defiance of court orders.
We hold the government accountable for unwarranted mass surveillance in cases like Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights v. DHS, G.T. v. McShane, and N.N. v. McShane.
Arbitrary and capricious surveillance doesn’t just pose a threat to immigrants – it exposes millions to profiling and police harassment.
Deaths in detention
Immigration enforcement is deadlier than ever, with 2025 marking the most deaths in ICE detention in over 20 years.
In some instances, the abuses that detained people describe meet the definitions of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
We expose the systemic human rights abuses that take place in ICE’s jails, in which people are frequently locked away in punitive conditions indistinguishable from those in criminal jails and prisons, in some cases for prolonged periods lasting years.
Join us.
Every gift, no matter how small, allows us to continue this work. Donate today to support our advocacy and litigation efforts, or subscribe to our mailing list to receive news about our latest victories, reports, and opportunities to get involved.