Immigration
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Human Rights and Immigrants’ Rights Groups Submit Federal Civil Rights Complaint After ICE Facility in Louisiana Pepper Sprays 200 Protesting Individuals in Retaliatory Attack
Tags Share Washington, D.C., April 2, 2024 – Last week, a group of human rights and immigrant rights organizations filed a federal civil rights complaint against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana and its contractors at the for-profit prison company, LaSalle Corrections. The complaint, which was submitted to the…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Announces Arely Westley as the 2024 Human Rights Award Laureate
Tags Share WASHINGTON, D.C., March 31, 2024 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today announced Arely Westley, an LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights activist, as the recipient of its 41st annual RFK Human Rights Award. A ceremony honoring Westley is scheduled for the first week of June in Washington, D.C. A longtime advocate for immigrant, Latinx,…
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Behind The Headlines: Turmoil In Texas As Ugly State Vs Federal Government Battle Over Who Controls Immigration Law
Tags Share This week, federal courts extended a pause on enforcement of S.B. 4, a Texas law that allows state police to arrest people they suspect crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without valid immigration status. S.B. 4 requires state judges to order people to leave the U.S. or face up to 20 years in prison if…
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Guards at Louisiana ICE facility accused of illegally pepper-spraying protestors
Tags Share In January 2024, ICE officers at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana pepper-sprayed hundreds of detainees who were participating in a peaceful demonstration and hunger strike. Guards retaliated by indiscriminately deploying pepper spray – an attack that blatantly violated individuals’ rights under the U.S. constitution, federal and state law, and ICE’s own legal standards…
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Three Years After Unjust Deportation, As Violence Explodes in Haiti, Human Rights Groups Urge Governor Kathy Hochul to Pardon Longtime New York Resident
Tags Share Yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Haitian Bridge Alliance filed a gubernatorial pardon application on behalf of Paul Pierrilus, a financial consultant from New York. The organizations are asking Governor Kathy Hochul to facilitate Pierrilus’ immediate return to New York following his sudden deportation to Haiti in 2021 – a country…
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Cornell Law School: Immigration Clinic Visits Batavia Detention Center
Tags Share In March 2024, Cornell Law students and faculty from the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic visited the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, to provide legal assistance to detained immigrants. Partnering with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the NYCLU, and Prisoners’ Legal Services of NY, the team met with detainees to…
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Behind the Headlines: A Leadership Vacuum at Border Patrol Exposes Flawed Migration Management Strategy
Tags Share Last week, President Biden and Donald Trump made separate visits to the border, highlighting the political importance of an issue that 80% of Americans say the U.S. government is doing a bad job handling: the arrival of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s no secret that the United States, just like other wealthy…
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Human rights groups file federal lawsuit for unaccompanied child wrongfully held in ICE detention
Tags Share Winnfield, LA, February 26, 2024 – Earlier this month, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR), the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana (ACLU-LA) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a 17-year-old unaccompanied child, I.J., who has been unlawfully held for months in a Louisiana ICE detention…
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Behind the Headlines: Immigrant Detention in the Blocked Border Security Bill
Tags Share In Washington, a proposed border bill — which would be the most significant updates to immigration law since 1996 — looks to be scuttled for now, but the issue of the border isn’t going anywhere. Let’s take a more detailed look into how the bill proposed to deal with increasing numbers of arriving…
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A state-federal partnership to help immigrants
Tags Share An efficient, fair immigration system won’t come from more detention centers and faster deportations that Congress is considering in its current budget bill. Writing in The Washington Post, our VP of U.S. Advocacy & Litigation Anthony Enriquez highlights how New York City is piloting an innovative approach to migrant reception – one that…
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Pine Prairie’s Depopulation Prompts Celebration, Demand for Eradication of Immigrant Detention in Louisiana
Tags Share After years of advocacy, reporting, and legal action by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, grassroots organizations, and detained persons, for-profit immigrant detention center Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana has been fully depopulated as of the end of 2023. The move, celebrated by those who have worked for the Pine Prairie’s closure…
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As ICE Ends Use of Notorious Detention Facility in Louisiana, Advocates Call for Releases
Tags Share Pine Prairie, LA, December 20, 2023 – The Southeast Dignity Not Detention (SDND) coalition, a group of local and national organizations committed to immigrants’ rights, today applauds the impending closure of the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center (Pine Prairie), a remote immigrant detention center in Louisiana with a long history of human rights…
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