U.S. Advocacy and Litigation
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Buffalo Asylum Seeker Sues Trump Admin Over Unconstitutional, Prolonged Detention
Tags Share BUFFALO, NY – In a fight to release Buffalo resident and asylum seeker J. M. A. from unreasonable, prolonged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights filed a habeas petition in the Western District of New York demanding his immediate release.…
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New complaints expose pattern of systemic sexual abuse, harassment, and forced labor at Louisiana ICE facility
Woman and three transgender people come forward regarding abuse at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share Federal Agents in NY Retreat in SUV with Slashed Tires as Protesters Shout ‘Gestapo’ Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site in an affluent Rochester neighborhood after being confronted by more than 100 protesters on Tuesday. The group shouted “shame” and “Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in…
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Newsweek: Trump Admin’s $4.7 Million Deal With El Salvador Revealed in Court Filing
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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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share ICE Opens Immigrant Detention Center in Notorious Louisiana Prison The maximum-security prison known as Angola, notorious for a history of violence and harsh conditions, has long been the repository for Louisiana’s worst offenders. Most inmates arrive with life sentences. Now, the prison, officially the Louisiana State Penitentiary, will also hold immigrants who have…
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Immigration advocates denounce U.S. government’s refusal to participate in UN review process
Tags Share New York, NY, September 4, 2025 – Five nonprofit organizations that testified during the United States Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Pre-Session in Geneva last week are denouncing the U.S. government’s unprecedented move to boycott the UPR proceedings. Calling out the United States’ escalating abuse of immigrants and asylum seekers, the nonprofits have pledged…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share An Unconstitutional “Jim Crow Jury” Sent Him to Prison for Life. A New Law Aims to Keep Him There When Lloyd Gray stood trial for rape in 1980, two jurors didn’t believe he was guilty and voted to acquit. Today, a split-jury verdict would mean a mistrial and possibly Gray’s freedom. But back…
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Cornell Law School
The Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic at Cornell Law School focuses on innovative work on behalf of undocumented and DACA communities through the Path2Papers Project and on advocacy for detained immigrants and asylum seekers.
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Kostak v. Trump: Stopping the expansion of mandatory detention
This case challenges the mandatory detention of Larysa Kostak, a 50-year-old Ukrainian woman who has lived in the United States for nearly two decades. She fled Ukraine for political reasons and entered the United States without inspection in 2005. No longer living in Brooklyn, New York, her home for the past 20 years, she now…
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Dispatches from Detention: Locked up Indefinitely
Tags Share Dispatches from Detention shares stories of people encountered by RFK Human Rights attorneys in legal outreach trips to the country’s most isolated immigration detention centers. Names have been changed to protect privacy. Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, Batavia, New York “When will this end?” – Marcus, a lawful permanent resident Marcus, a Black man…
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Lucero v. United States: Accountability for anti-Latino racism and violence
This case seeks international accountability for the creation by the United States government of a climate that fosters discrimination and violence against Latinos residing in the country. This climate has led to a sharp increase in the number of human rights violations committed against Latinos in the United States.
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Amid increase in anti-Latino violence, attorneys urge international commission to hear years-old murder case
Tags Share New York, NY, August 26, 2025 – Attorneys at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and LatinoJustice PRLDEF last week petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to hear the case of Oswaldo Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who was murdered in 2008 in a racially-motivated attack by a group of teenagers. In…
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