Latin America
We work alongside local organizations and human rights defenders to defend civic space and combat violence, repression, and discrimination in the region. Through strategic litigation and legal advocacy before the Inter-American Human Rights system and the United Nations, we work toward protecting human rights, seeking truth, justice, and redress for victims of human rights violations. From combating gender-based violence in Central America, historic racism against Dominicans of Haitian Descent, and systematic repression against critics in Venezuela and Guatemala to protecting freedom of the press in Colombia and Brazil, our mission is to create a region where justice, dignity, and equality prevail for all.
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Hundreds Forcibly Disappeared to El Salvadoran Mega-Prison
Four groups, including RFK Human Rights, filed a request seeking precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against El Salvador for the unlawful detention of hundreds of individuals forcibly and illegally transferred from the United States in recent months.
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US brokers secret torture deal with El Salvador: report to UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
On February 3, 2025, President Nayib Bukele publicly announced that El Salvador had offered to detain “criminals” sent from the US, including both migrant deportees and US citizens, in exchange for a fee.
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Devdiscourse: Coalition Challenges US-El Salvador Detainee Deal in Court
Tags Share A coalition of immigrant rights groups including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s agreement to house detainees in an El Salvadorian prison. The suit argues that the deal violates the U.S. Constitution by preventing detainees from accessing U.S. courts and due process. Concerns are raised over…
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Courthouse News Services: State Department faces lawsuit over migrant detention agreement with El Salvador
Tags Share “Ten of our clients were kidnapped from U.S. streets and locked away in one of the world’s most notorious blackhole prisons in a scheme to use U.S. taxpayer dollars for enforced disappearances, incommunicado detention and torture.” Quoted in Courthouse News Service, our vice president of U.S. Advocacy and Litigation Anthony Enriquez describes RFK…
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The Hill: State Department sued over Trump deal to house migrants in El Salvador prison
Tags Share RFK Human Rights and other immigrant advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the State Department over a controversial Trump administration deal that pays El Salvador to house deported migrants in a new prison facility. The lawsuit argues that the agreement is not only a violation of U.S. asylum laws but also illegal…
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AP News: Immigrant rights groups sue to invalidate Trump administration’s El Salvador prison deal
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, along with other immigrant rights groups, has filed a lawsuit to invalidate the Trump administration’s controversial deal with El Salvador, which allows the transfer of deported individuals to a new prison facility in the country. The groups argue that the agreement violates U.S. asylum laws and international human…
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Suit Challenges Trump Administration’s Black Site Agreement with El Salvador to Disappear People
Tags Share Washington, DC — Today, a coalition of immigrants rights organizations and criminal defense lawyers filed a lawsuit to block the U.S. State Department’s backdoor agreement with El Salvador to implement the Trump-Vance administration’s practice of disappearing people indefinitely from U.S. territory into El Salvador’s prison system without due process, legal justification, or public…
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ABC News: Immigration courts dismissing cases of Venezuelan migrants sent to El Salvador: Attorneys
Tags Share Immigration courts are dismissing the cases of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, sparking alarm among lawyers and human rights advocates who say the move violates due process. Attorneys say these migrants, many with pending asylum claims or legal protections like TPS, were deported without fair hearings, and…
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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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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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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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