U.S. Advocacy and Litigation
-
Louisiana Illuminator, ‘The Light Switch’ podcast: Inside ICE’s Louisiana detention centers
Tags Share Last month, a group of civil rights advocates toured three U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in Louisiana, part of a network of nine facilities that have processed tens of thousands of people this year under President Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Among those on the tour were Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert…
-
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share ‘Horrific’: Report Reveals Abuse of Pregnant Women and Children at US ICE Facilities A new report has found hundreds of reported cases of human rights abuses in US immigration detention centers. The alleged abuses uncovered include deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse of detainees, mistreatment of pregnant women and children, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and…
-
RFK Human Rights v. United States Department of Homeland Security: Defending humane and effective alternatives to immigration detention
This case under the Freedom of Information Act seeks answers to questions about the unprecedented expansion of taxpayer funding for immigration detention that occurred in 2025. Specifically: why did the federal government end a program that returned a 100% immigration court appearance rate without detention or surveillance and was 90% cheaper than detention? Why did…
-
RFK Human Rights, Adasina, and FreeCap release new investor risk briefs ahead of GEO Group and CoreCivic Q2 earnings calls
Tags Share New York, NY, August 5, 2025 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Adasina Social Capital and FreeCap Financial today released their Q2 investor risk briefs, detailing growing financial liabilities for shareholders of GEO Group and CoreCivic. These reports highlight recent facility closures, heightened scrutiny from regulators, and new and recently decided lawsuits regarding…
-
The New York Times: Trump’s Immigrant Crackdown in New York: More Arrests, Longer Detention
Tags Share In President Trump’s second term, ICE has ramped up deportations in NYC by arresting migrants during routine check-ins at immigration offices and courts. New data shows over 2,300 arrests since January, many of them longtime residents with no criminal record. Inside detention, migrants report inhumane conditions, including lack of medical care, overcrowding, and…
-
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest Deportation Hub ICE wants to make immigration enforcement as efficient as FedEx or Amazon. Louisiana was poised for this moment. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, more than 21,000 people taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have passed through the Alexandria detention facility.…
-
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…
-
The New York Times:How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest Deportation Hub
Tags Share Alexandria International Airport looks like any small-town airfield, but just yards from the terminal sits the Alexandria Staging Facility, now the busiest deportation hub in the U.S. As part of President Trump’s ramped-up immigration crackdown, more than 21,000 people have passed through the Louisiana facility, often with no legal help and no idea…
-
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share ‘It is Hell’: Migrants Returning to Venezuela Describe Life in El Salvador Prison Where U.S. Sent Them Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and other officials have said many of the immigrants were physically and psychologically tortured during their detention in El Salvador, airing on state television videos of some of the men describing the…
-
Miami Herald: Woman in crisis was stripped, strapped to chair at Florida ICE center, suit says
Tags Share A Colombian woman who was a victim of human trafficking is suing the Baker County ICE detention center in Florida, alleging that officers stripped, restrained, and mocked her while she was in the midst of a mental health crisis. Detained after asking for feminine hygiene products, she was placed in solitary confinement for…
-
This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share “Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up for the first time about her shocking arrest and 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility. She recalls the generous and compassionate women who helped her through this harrowing ordeal.…
-
Louisiana Illuminator: LSU students detained by ICE released after judge’s order
Tags Share Two Iranian-born LSU Ph.D. students were released from ICE detention after a federal judge intervened, following weeks of being held under questionable and deceptive circumstances. Despite having valid legal status to study in the U.S., they were arrested shortly after U.S. military action in Iran, raising serious concerns about politically motivated targeting. Robert…
Share