No matter who occupies the presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights will continue to fight to reduce the size, scope, and power of all forms of mass incarceration in American society. We have an unshakable commitment to our grassroots partners and our mission to expose and to end police and prison abuses in the criminal and immigration legal systems.

But President-elect Trump has promised grave dangers for human rights defenders—and we believe him. The mass deportations, the threats of violence towards peaceful protestors, and the criminalization of dissent that he campaigned on cannot be accomplished without an unprecedented expansion of mass incarceration. 

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has planned for this moment. With actions and campaigns against mass incarceration across the country, where can you fit in?

Unite with the movement to end immigration detention. In states around the country, people are fighting to take back their local economies from the private prison executives profiting from human rights abuses in immigration detention. We’re amplifying calls for detention center shutdowns through human rights reporting, federal lawsuits that expose human rights abuses, and international pressure from human rights bodies. Now, our work to end abusive and wasteful immigration detention is more urgent than ever.

Demand accountability for police violence against human rights defenders. When we filed cases with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights to seek accountability for police killings of Black youths and environmental defenders, we knew justice would require more than courtroom arguments alone. It also takes solidarity with grassroots defenders speaking out against police abuses of power. We won’t back down from our commitment to protect the people protecting our human rights.

Stand up for people targeted for abuses of the criminal and immigration systems. We know that real justice requires more than stopping hateful rhetoric. It takes change to the policies that are hurting people. We’re exposing racial discrimination that taints fair and accurate court decisions, suing local police departments that stop and frisk people based on their race, and leading a national campaign demanding release of people at risk of serious harm or death in immigration detention because of their gender, sexual orientation, or disability status. We won’t stop fighting for the dignity of all people targeted for abuse simply because of who they are.  

Human rights belong to all of us. But it’s up to all of us to demand them. Join us in the movement to end mass incarceration and in defense of all who stand in solidarity for a more just and peaceful world.