Our Voices
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette: At Pa.’s largest detention center, immigrant safety endangered as cuts cripple DHS oversight arm
Tags Share At Pennsylvania’s largest immigrant detention center, Moshannon Valley, conditions have become increasingly dangerous amid severe cuts to the Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights oversight office. A sweeping investigation into death, abuse, medical neglect, sexual harassment, and excessive solitary confinement has been jeopardized after the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL)…
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Ending solitary confinement in immigration detention: a guide to litigation and advocacy strategies
Tags Share Egregious abuse of solitary confinement is found throughout the U.S. immigration detention system. From 2017 to 2021, the United States imprisoned immigrants in solitary confinement over 14,500 times. In 2017, the average duration of placement was 33 days; in 2022, the average was 22 days, with a high duration of 242 days. The…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share DHS Says it Won’t Eliminate Oversight Offices but is Still Pursuing Layoffs The Homeland Security Department is no longer planning on shuttering three oversight offices whose entire workforces were told in March that they were being laid off. Officials are still going through with reductions in force, however, leading to continued questions from…
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91.5 KJZZ Phoenix: DHS oversight offices return to function, but questions remain about their future
Tags Share Almost all employees at three key oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were laid off when the agency closed them in March, citing a shift in mission. Speaking with KJZZ Phoenix, Anthony Enriquez, Vice President of U.S. Advocacy and Litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, criticized the move, emphasizing…
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CNN: Trump appointee grilled in court about shuttering Homeland Security offices tasked with civil rights oversight
Tags Share A federal judge said that she had concerns about being “hoodwinked” by plans put forward in her courtroom Monday by a Trump appointee to rebuild three offices focused on civil rights oversight within the Department of Homeland Security that were eviscerated with mass layoffs set to take effect this week. US District Judge…
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Cameroon: RFK Human Rights Condemns Sustained Attacks against REDHAC
Tags Share We strongly condemn the Cameroonian government’s ban on the activities of and sustained attacks against the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC, by its French acronym), led by RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Maximillienne Ngo Mbe. We call on the government to lift the ban, unseal REDHAC’s offices, and desist…
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CNN: Trump appointee grilled in court about shuttering Homeland Security offices tasked with civil rights oversight
Tags Share A federal judge expressed concern Monday about being “hoodwinked” by plans to rebuild three civil rights oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security, which are facing mass layoffs. While Judge Ana Reyes said she found testimony from USCIS Ombudsman Ronald Sartini credible and believed he was acting in good faith, she emphasized…
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The Denver Post: Jeanette Vizguerra — held by ICE in Aurora — named a winner of Robert F. Kennedy human rights award
Tags Share The Denver Post reports that Jeanette Vizguerra, a longtime Colorado immigration advocate currently held in ICE detention, has been named one of three recipients of the 42nd annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Honored alongside Maine Gov. Janet Mills and former DOJ pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer, Vizguerra was recognized for her grassroots…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share Maine Gov. Janet Mills to Receive Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Maine Gov. Janet Mills will receive an award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. RFK Human Rights announced Thursday that Mills is one of three recipients of its 42nd annual Human Rights Award. The other two are Elizabeth Oyer, a former…
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Miami Herald: We heard first hand the horrors of El Salvador mega prison housing Trump’s deportees | Opinion
Tags Share A delegation from RFK Human Rights recently traveled to El Salvador to learn about conditions of the newly constructed mega-prison, which houses hundreds of individuals deported by the U.S. under the Trump administration. During their visit, the delegation heard first-hand accounts of the abuse and overcrowding in the facility, where many individuals face…
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WMTW: Maine Gov. Janet Mills to receive Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Tags Share RFK Human Rights recently named Maine Governor Janet Mills as one of the recipients of its 42nd annual Human Rights Award. Reporting on this news, WMTW highlights the Mills administration’s successful legal battle to restore federal funding for school nutrition programs serving 172,000 children in Maine. Mills joins fellow honorees Elizabeth Oyer, the…
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