U.S. Advocacy and Litigation
The U.S. Advocacy and Litigation program partners with grassroots human rights defenders to reduce the scope and power of mass incarceration in American society.
Together, we fight for changes to the criminal and immigration systems that guarantee respect for everyone’s human rights.
Our Issues
Racial Discrimination
Everyone deserves fair and equal treatment from police, no matter race or color. We defend the human right to freedom from racial discrimination.
Torture
Everyone deserves respect for their inherent dignity from police. We defend the human right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Extrajudicial Killings
Everyone deserves to be able to safely interact with police. We defend the human right to freedom from extrajudicial killings.
Arbitrary Detention
Everyone deserves due process if police take away their liberty. We defend the human right to freedom from arbitrary detention.
Our Work
Litigate
We go to court with human rights defenders pursuing systemic change.
Expose
We uncover wrongdoing in reports, complaints, and public hearings.
Educate
We inform the public and policymakers about systemic human rights abuses and how to stop them.
Focus Areas
Shut down Louisiana immigration detention
Inside Louisiana’s nine immigration detention centers, overseen by the New Orleans, Louisiana ICE field office, officials rampantly violate detained peoples’ human rights to coerce them into accepting deportation.
End Solitary Confinement
International human rights law recognizes prolonged solitary confinement as torture. But this abusive practice is common and on the rise in the United States.
Shut Down the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility
Buffalo Federal Detention Facility is New York’s largest immigrant detention center—and it’s notorious for abusing detained people with prolonged solitary confinement, coerced labor, and retaliation for speaking out against human rights abuses.
Read the Latest
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Immigration advocates denounce U.S. government’s refusal to participate in UN review process
Dispatches from Detention: Locked up Indefinitely
Amid increase in anti-Latino violence, attorneys urge international commission to hear years-old murder case
The Marshall Project: The Next Alligator Alcatraz Could Be in Your State
Help us protect human rights
Please give now. Your contribution will make a difference in the critical effort to achieve equal rights for all.