Conditions at the NWDC: Background, Methodology, and Human Rights Standards
March 27, 2020
Human rights concerns at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA follow a national pattern of substandard conditions in immigration detention.
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:
March 27, 2020
Human rights concerns at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA follow a national pattern of substandard conditions in immigration detention.
March 4, 2020
In February the Department of Justice sued King County, WA to reopen Boeing Field in Seattle for deportation flights. Later that week, the UWCHR released a video explainer, produced by UW students and alumni, giving background on the ICE Air deportation flight network.
October 25, 2019
In recent days many have focused a great deal of attention to the conditions under which migrants—including many children—are being held along the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet far fewer people are aware of the extent to which interrelated rights concerns crop up right here in Washington state. Student researchers at the UWCHR have set out to
October 16, 2019
Across Washington state, ICE and Border Patrol are increasingly carrying out immigration enforcement arrests at or near courthouses, raising serious concerns about access to justice for all Washingtonians.
August 20, 2019
The advent of regular ICE Air deportation and detainee transfer flights via Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field has deepened Yakima’s role in immigration enforcement in the Pacific Northwest, but the flights build on prior infrastructure centered on the pipeline between Yakima County jail and the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
August 16, 2019
A newly-released Department of Homeland Security document reveals allegations of serious abuses on ICE deportation flights, including accounts of mistreatment, excessive force, due process violations, and deaths.
April 23, 2019
A database of ICE Air’s deportation flights reveals records of more than 34,400 passengers picked up by ICE at Boeing Field in King County, Washington.
April 23, 2019
Each year, “ICE Air” removes tens of thousands of people from the US via a network of private charter flights. The UW Center for Human Rights is making public an ICE database regarding these flights and documenting the corporations and municipalities participating in ICE’s deportation flights.
January 30, 2019
Key findings Inmate booking and release data from Pierce County jails shows that during the period from October 2016 through July 2018, over 188 inmates were the subject of detainer requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Latinx inmates are heavily overrepresented in the population subjected to ICE detainers. Statistical analysis shows that, when controlling
January 30, 2019
SEATTLE — In Pierce County jails, inmates targeted by Immigration & Customs Enforcement spend more than three times longer in jail than other inmates with similar charges, according to research by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, a disparity which raises significant human rights and policy concerns. The Center’s new report, “Unequal Justice: