This report is part of a series regarding Human Rights Conditions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, based on ongoing research efforts and released to highlight initial findings in the urgent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contents: • Introduction • Background, Methodology, and Human Rights Standards • Sanitation of Food and Laundry •

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Theresa Rocha Beardall as she joins the next class of William T. Grant Scholars for her work with the Puyallup Tribal Historic Preservation Department (THPD). As part of this project, Dr. Rocha Beardall, alongside a team of UW student researchers, is working under the direction and guidance of the

On March 18, 2026, Professor Angel Gabriel Cabrera Silva, University of Washington Center for Human Rights faculty associate and Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Washington Tacoma, appeared before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to argue in favor of recognizing democracy as a human right with political, social, and economic dimensions.

Today, on International Right to Truth Day, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights is honored to share a new multimedia publication, celebrating the life and legacy of ANDES 21 de Junio union organizer and educator Efraín Arévalo Ibarra, who was disappeared by the government of El Salvador in 1977. “He Couldn’t Close His

At a time when immigration enforcement is both more visible and more secretive than ever before, UWCHR is publishing a new dataset released to us as part of settlement negotiations in ongoing FOIA litigation against DHS. This data, drawn from I-213 forms[1] produced by ICE during 2022 through 2025 in the agency’s Seattle Area of

Update: This position has been filled. The University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) invites applications from UW undergraduates interested in forming part of our research team. We are recruiting 1-2 interns to support our work to declassify U.S. government documents related to historic human rights violations in El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin

Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) continues “roadside assists” to ICE/CBP immigration investigations. In this research update to the January 8, 2026, “Roadside Assist” report, UWCHR highlights new cases and analysis of DOL data. New cases: UWCHR’s January 2026 report, “Roadside Assist,” documented 9 cases in which ICE or CBP queried DOL data prior to conducting

Executive summary Today, immigrant Washingtonians are increasingly afraid to drive, as our streets, highways, and public thoroughfares have become frequent sites for immigration enforcement. These incidents, in which drivers are typically apprehended by masked, unidentified agents driving unmarked vehicles, raise multiple human rights concerns: many arrests appear to have been warrantless,[1] some have been violent,[2]

Since our inception, UWCHR has conducted research on topics related to immigrant rights in Washington state, as specified by the state law under which our center was founded. These ongoing efforts are now grouped under our Immigrant Rights Observatory project. Over the years, our reports have documented both serious concern for the rights of migrants

In spring 2025, with additional funding support from the UW EarthLab, the Indigenous Rights and Environmental Sustainability project focused on nurturing future generations of climate leaders by engaging Chief Leschi Schools (CLS) and UW students in the creation of two traditional plant food forests: one on the campus of CLS and one at the Nisqually