At the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, our research team is examining the human rights implications of contemporary immigration enforcement in Washington state.
At a time of heightened concern about immigrant rights, it is more important than ever to understand the policies our government has implemented at the local, state, and federal level to handle immigration, and to examine the effects of these policies on the lives and liberties of all Washingtonians.
Read our most recent reports regarding this initiative:
December 16, 2020
UWCHR reports on concerns related to health and safety in immigration detention at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, including COVID-19 risks; and reviews transparency and oversight mechanisms including the potential for increased state and local regulation.
December 9, 2020
Since receiving the Benjamin Linder Justice Fellowship I have been ecstatic to continue my work with the UW Center for Human Rights and have the opportunity to be a part of this community. My work during this fellowship has centered around a newly instated project titled the “Observatorio,” which functions under the umbrella of the
December 3, 2020
On December 3, 2020, members of the Washington State Congressional Delegation wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General requesting an “immediate investigation into the recent allegations of violence against detained immigrants and a comprehensive review of the use of solitary confinement at the [Northwest Detention Center]”. The letter,
December 1, 2020
Updates from UWCHR’s various projects from our 2019-2020 Annual Report: Family separation in the Pacific Northwest, our Immigrant Rights Observatory, ICE Air and deportation flights, Unfinished Sentences El Salvador, and the Panama Files and other work for access to information as a human right.
November 30, 2020
The UWCHR has obtained documents that provide a detailed look at the use of solitary confinement (also known as segregation) in the Northwest Detention Center. These documents, to our knowledge the first of their kind to have been released about any ICE detention facility in the United States, permit a deeper understanding of how segregation is used than has been previously available.
October 21, 2020
The University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) has launched a new research project to monitor compliance with state laws seeking to protect immigrant rights. The UWCHR’s “Immigrant Rights Observatory” will use public records research and community partnerships to investigate how local and state government agencies have implemented provisions of the Keep Washington Working
April 22, 2020
Cowlitz County Youth Services Center in Longview, WA, and the juvenile Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility (NORCOR), in The Dalles, OR, are two of only three facilities in the nation where immigrant children who are taken from their families by ICE are detained, without access to due process or the protections mandated for migrant youth under the 1997 Flores Agreement.
April 16, 2020
UWCHR reviews documentary evidence substantiating longstanding allegations of medical neglect at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA.
March 27, 2020
Immigrants detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA have consistently reported sanitation issues including spoiled food and dirty laundry, which raise grave health concerns in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 27, 2020
Human rights concerns at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA follow a national pattern of substandard conditions in immigration detention.