IRTF News

UN experts raise concerns over the unexplained termination of at least 135 immigration judges in the United States. As many of these terminated judges have higher rates of granting asylum or had background in sympathetic fields (immigrant defense or humanitarian advoacy), the UN criticizes these politically charged actions and questions the ability of judges to effectively preside over cases with the looming threat of being targeted bases on their percieved politcal affiliation.

This Human Rights Watch report examines the execerbating conditions for detainees within immigration persecution and shedding light on the detention facility Camp East Montana in Texas and its treatment of detainees. 

The American Immigration Council describes the detention system as a system of systematic failure exposing its flawed nature of detention or deportation as a one-size-fits-all response.

A year after Trump allocated billions for his immigration terror campaign, deportation agents are amassing historic amounts of military weapons.

This article looks at El Salvador's State of Exception through the lens of the unrightfully detained lawyer, activist and human rights defender Ruth López. 

Was a  Canadian military/security consultant company  complicit in the 2016 assassination of Indigenous Lenca land defender Berta Céceres? Did they financially benefit?  What was their role in broader intimidation efforts against Indigenous land defenders?

According to a report published by The New York Times , by 2024 Honduras Próspera Inc., the main company behind the charter city located in Roatán and based in the United States, had raised around $120 million in investments, including contributions from venture capital funds backed by Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.

Recently, Jorge Constantino Colindres, technical secretary of Próspera, recalled that the project was the first ZEDE established in Honduras and stated that “its vision is to build in Honduras the best place in the world to do business, live, and work, with legal stability, physical security, and individual freedom. It does not receive funds from the central government, does not issue passports, has no army, and transfers 12% of its tax revenue to the national government and municipalities. What Próspera does have is what Honduras has needed for decades: a world-class regulatory environment .”

These statements contrast with the massive demonstrations in which millions of Hondurans participated between 2020 and 2021 to express their rejection of the ZEDEs and, in particular, of Prospera.

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance released its latest data-driven report that shows the Trump administration is lying about who it is arresting, detaining, and deporting. “Counting Errors, Missing Denominators, and Misplaced Arrests: An Ohio Case Study of the White House ‘Alien Arrest’ Tracker” compares White House data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, revealing startling discrepancies that show the White House site cannot be trusted. Comparing White House data to data from the same source, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests from the Deportation Data Project, the OIA report identified four key problems with the White House site.

Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador welcomes tourists with open arms while ruthlessly imprisoning its own people.

This article details how the second Trump administration's mass deportation campaign has dramatically increased the detention and removal rates of immigrants who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, often rolling back legal protections previously granted to them. Through the lens of 18-year-old Elder Chavez and other detained youth, it highlights the rapid-fire deportation orders in immigration courts, the harsh conditions within detention centers, and the growing pushback from federal judges and legal advocates.