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

Reshaping Narratives and Building Power in 2024-2025 This year, the Strategies for Massage Parlor Workers’ Rights project, in collaboration with the Massage Parlor Outreach Project (MPOP), continued to examine ways to build worker power and leadership among migrant Asian massage parlor workers, sex workers, and care workers in the greater Seattle area.  In 2024–25, we

Former student researcher Sarah Kwan, graduating class of 2017, sits down with UWCHR’s Andrea Marcos to reflect on her time at the center and how she carries that work forward. This interview is featured in the 2024-2025 Annual Report.   AM: Sarah, thanks so much for talking with us. You worked as a student researcher

Letter from the Director Most readers of this annual report already know it’s been a rough year for both higher education and human rights. Our Center for Human Rights sits at the nexus of these two fields, so we’ve been in the thick of it. While I don’t know what our work will look like

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 •

Receiving the Benjamin Linder Fellowship this year has been a great honor that has allowed me to continue my work for the UW Center for Human Rights, researching human rights abuses during El Salvador’s civil war of 1980-1992. This work requires a huge level of organization—new documents and correspondence need organizing, new FOIA requests need

Over the past year, my work with Zaytoon UW and the Zaytoon Scholarship Network has been defined by urgency, resilience, and collaboration. Recognizing the absence of a formal Palestinian-led organization on campus, myself and another Palestinian student initiated the formation of Zaytoon UW. Officially launched on October 2, 2024, Zaytoon UW was led by a