Racial Discrimination
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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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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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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.…
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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…
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WBRZ: Attorneys, advocates for released LSU Iranian students concerned with timing of clients’ arrest
Tags Share Two Iranian LSU students were arrested by ICE under false pretenses just one day after U.S. bombings in Iran. They were then held for weeks without any clear explanation of the charges against them. Represented in federal court by the ACLU of Louisiana and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the students were eventually…
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Human Rights Organizations Urge International Commission to Review Louisiana Police Violence Case
Tags Share Washington, D.C., June 10, 2025 – Last month, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Juror Project filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of Anthony Monroe, a 61-year-old Louisiana resident and victim of police violence, and…
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US police use lethal, military-grade force against Black people and civic space activists: report to UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Police use of lethal force in the United States is on the rise, with more police killings reported in 2024 than any other year on record. This gruesome milestone was reached due to increased access to military-grade weaponry, aggressive suppression of civic space, and the continuation of a historical pattern of violence against Black people.
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RFK Human Rights Submits Evidence to UN Special Rapporteur of Disproportionate, Deadly Policing in the U.S.
Tags Share Washington, D.C., June 6, 2025 – Today, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (“RFK Human Rights”), submitted a detailed report to the Special Rapporteur, an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, highlighting emerging trends and patterns in U.S. law enforcement’s use of lethal force. Submitted ahead of the 80th Session…
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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 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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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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