Arbitrary Detention
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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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Bloomberg: Trump Faces New Lawsuit Over Migrants Sent to Salvadoran Prison
Tags Share The Trump administration faces a new legal challenge over its agreement with El Salvador to detain migrants in the notoriously harsh CECOT prison. Filed in federal court, the lawsuit alleges that the arrangement violates U.S. laws by denying due process, using unauthorized federal funds, and subjecting detainees to cruel and unusual punishment. Robert…
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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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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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RFK Human Rights publishes resource guide for victims of arbitrary detention
Tags Share Washington, D.C., May 28, 2025 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today published a new guide that outlines best practices for engaging with the United States government on arbitrary and wrongful detention cases. The guide was created as a practical resource for family members of individuals who are arbitrarily detained overseas. It is…
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Quarterly Investor Risk Briefs for Private Prison Companies Geo Group and CoreCivic
Our quarterly investor risk briefs highlight timely risks for shareholders in GEO Group and CoreCivic.
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RFK Human Rights v. Department of Homeland Security: Exposing coercion of unaccompanied children
This case under the Freedom of Information Act seeks to expose the U.S. government’s practice of depriving unaccompanied immigrant children of legal protections from deportation and imprisonment in adult detention centers by destroying their birth certificates, coercing false confessions of adulthood, and falsifying age records through racially biased, pseudo-scientific forensic tests.
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Guide on Engaging the United States Government on Arbitrary or Wrongful Detention Cases
Tags Share Addressing arbitrary and wrongful detention through advocacy and litigation is an area of extensive expertise and experience for RFK Human Rights. In the last decade, we have worked with families of arbitrarily and wrongfully detained individuals, including US persons, to facilitate their release and return home. A central reflection from our engagements with…
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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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Monroe v. United States: Dismantling barriers to accountability for police brutality
This case seeks to protect the human right to a remedy and reparation for survivors and victims of U.S. police brutality. It asks the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to instruct the United States to reform civil laws to ensure access to civil remedies for people subjected to police brutality.
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