U.S. Advocacy and Litigation
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Nonprofits Urge ICE to End Detention of Pregnant People Following Reports of Abuse and Medical Neglect
Tags Share CONTACT: Gabby Arias, media@aclu.org Jesse Vad, media@laaclu.org Emma Gillett, gillett@rfkhumanrights.org WASHINGTON — A group of civil and human rights organizations today urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end the detention of pregnant people immediately and to investigate alarming reports of medical neglect and abuse in ICE facilities in Louisiana and Georgia. In…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned. “If the officers…
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The Guardian: Queer and trans immigrants allege forced labor and sexual assault in ICE facility: ‘I was treated worse than an animal’
Tags Share Last month, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the National Immigration Project filed multiple complaints exposing systemic abuse against immigrants at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center. Three of our clients, Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, Kenia Campos-Flores, and Monica Renteria-Gonzalez – all of whom identify as transgender – recently shared their…
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Nonprofits file FOIA request regarding Trump administration’s decommissioning of national police accountability database
Tags Share Washington, D.C., October 14, 2025 – Earlier this month, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, National Police Accountability Project, Black Lives Matter, D.C., National Immigration Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Human Rights Data Analysis Group submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information about the construction, operation, and…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share Deaths of Migrants in ICE Custody Reach Highest Level in 20 Years Huabing Xie, an undocumented migrant from China, became the latest person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in fiscal year 2025, after passing away on September 29. His death also brought the total to at least 22 between…
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Attorneys File Habeas Petition Challenging Unconstitutional Indefinite Detention at Angola’s “Camp 57”
Tags Share BATON ROUGE, LA — The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Oscar Amaya, an immigrant who has been granted protection from deportation but remains indefinitely detained at Camp 57, the newly opened immigration detention center…
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Longtime NY Resident Released from Louisiana ICE Facility, but Freedom Remains Uncertain
Tags Share NEW ORLEANS – After months of unlawful detention following a federal court order granting her bond, Larysa Kostak has been released from the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. However, her freedom remains at risk as the government continues to challenge the ruling that vindicated her constitutional rights. It’s a case with sweeping…
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Habeas Petition Filed Seeking Release of 18-Year-Old with Special Immigration Status Unlawfully Detained in Louisiana ICE Facility
Tags Share Washington, DC – Today, the National Immigration Project, the ACLU of Louisiana, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights filed a habeas petition in federal court seeking the release of 18-year-old Carlos Guerra Leon. Carlos, who just graduated from high school in Spring Valley, New York earlier this year, has approved Special Immigrant Juvenile…
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KLFY News: Ukrainian woman freed from Louisiana ICE facility; legal battle continues
Tags Share A longtime Brooklyn resident, 50-year-old Larysa Kostak, was recently released from ICE custody following a lawsuit by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and partners – but her freedom remains uncertain. Speaking with KLFY News, our Director of U.S Strategic Litigation Sarah Gillman said, “ICE officers detained Larysa at her court hearing without notice…
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Louisiana Illuminator: ACLU sues to free Angola ICE detainee who’s already served sentence, has deportation protection
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man illegally held in ICE detention in Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison, despite having court-ordered protection from deportation and having already served his full criminal sentence for past convictions. Read more about the story here.
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share U.S. Assigned a Specialized Immigration Team to Target Campus Protesters When Rumeysa Ozturk was grabbed by masked federal agents outside her Massachusetts home in March, the video of the Turkish graduate student being handcuffed and hustled into an unmarked vehicle spread around the world. A federal trial that ended Tuesday revealed for the first time the…
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Newsweek: ICE Warden Put Transgender Detainees into Forced Labor Program: Complaint
The Trump administration’s agreement with El Salvador to detain alleged criminal gang members has been made public for the first time, as part of a lawsuit challenging the use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA).
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