IRTF News

The Supreme Court last week rejected a challenge to President Joe Biden’s effort to stop the previous administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced many asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings before U.S. immigration judges. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday said that the current policy will continue for the next few weeks. Mayorkas said the “Remain in Mexico” program “has endemic flaws and causes unjustifiable human tragedy.” In the meantime, migrants will continue to go through immigration enforcement proceedings.

For several months now, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has pursued a campaign of mass arrests. Under his recently extended state of emergency, police have arrested more than 43,000 people on suspicion of membership in the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18, which the government classifies as terrorist groups. Grounds for arrest include having tattoos, living in neighborhoods with gang presence or simply “looking like criminals.” Amnesty International has reported on human rights abuses, including indefinite pretrial detention, trials in absentia and lifting sentencing restrictions on minors as young as 12. At least 59 people have died in custody, according to the Salvadoran human rights group Cristosal.

We, the undersigned 87 organizations committed to human rights, migrant, and refugee rights, are writing ahead of your bilateral meeting at the White House to urge you to center your discussion of migration on human rights, protection, and expansion of legal pathways. While migration across the hemisphere poses challenges, the United States and Mexico can and should be leaders in the protection of migrants and refugees and make reality the rightsrespecting commitments in the four pillars of the recently signed Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. In the face of these tragedies, our organizations remain gravely concerned that, despite the stated commitments of your administrations, including those made in the recent Los Angeles Declaration, to promote regular pathways for migration, access to international protection, and humane migration management, the United States and Mexico are instead continuing ineffective and unlawful deterrence-based policies and practices that disregard and subvert international refugee and human rights law and endanger migrants and asylum seekers.

More than 900 construction workers in Honduras building a new U.S. embassy went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday to demand fair treatment. The workers in Honduras say they were forced to sign illegal labor contracts that do not protect them from work injuries, according to HCH. The workers are also asking for permanent contracts. Some were made to sign hourly contracts, which is also illegal, according to Radio America. 

The Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Honduras (PGR), announced its victory in the lawsuit filed by at least 100 investors who sustained an allegation for alleged expropriations in which they claim to have lost millions of dollars, which was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit of Florida. This U.S. Court issued a judgment in favor of the State of Honduras that includes the Instituto de la Propiedad (IP) and the Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE), in the case Agurcia v. Republic of Honduras, filed in the Middle Federal District of Florida, according to the PGR in a written statement.  

Colombia’s Truth Commission has presented its final report on the country’s long-running civil conflict, announcing that at least 450,664 people were killed over nearly six decades of fighting. The commission was set up as part of the 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). It was tasked with documenting abuses and explaining what caused the conflict to persist for so long.

We are OUTRAGED at the way police continue to treat the lives of Black people as expendable. Our tax dollars allow them to actively harm our communities, unless and until we make them stop. We are also MOTIVATED to make change. 

Despite the recent sentencing of a company executive for his responsibility in the murder of Lenca defender, Berta Cáceres, documents show alleged omissions and involvement of financial and corporate entities in her murder. Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) urges the Honduran and Dutch States to ensure justice in the murder of Berta Cáceres. No one should remain in impunity.

This past weekend, neighbours and family members gathered in Tzucubal to remember two of the Guatemalan victims who were found dead late last month in an abandoned trailer in Texas: cousins Pascual Melvin Guachiac, 13, and Juan Wilmer Tulul, 14. Pascual’s childhood home buzzed with activity as his grandmother, Manuela Coj, worked alongside other family and friends to prepare food for people visiting to express their condolences. The continuing flow of migration has highlighted a growing desperation in Guatemala, driving children to set off for the US in search of opportunities.