On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights celebrated the success of a hearing in federal district court regarding its ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). At the hearing SOUTHCOM agreed to release relevant portions of two previously unseen collections

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

UW Ph.D. student Emily Willard represented the University of Washington Center for Human Rights during an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing regarding the “Situation of Human Rights Defenders of Migrants in the United States.”

Newly declassified U.S. Government documents show American Embassy’s support for the El Mozote massacre trial and other cases of wartime abuses, and provide new insight into wartime dynamics and atrocities such as the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero, UN involvement in El Salvador, and the alleged corruption and crimes against humanity committed by U.S.-trained Salvadoran Armed Forces and former Defense Minister García.

Report on barriers to access to information regarding immigration enforcement, presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. on December 5, 2018 during the Commission’s session on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders of Migrants in the United States.

For Immediate Release December 3, 2018  Contacts: Alejandra Gonza, agonza@uw.edu, 508-648-1331 Maru Mora Villalpando maru@latinoadvocacy.org 206-251-6658  Immigrant Activists Targeted by US Testify Before International Commission Washington DC- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is meeting in Washington, D.C. on December 5th to dialogue with the Government of the United States of America about the Situation of Human Rights Defenders of Migrants

UWCHR student researchers took a deep dive into ICE arrest data released by Syracuse University’s TRAC. The data shows that almost half of ICE arrests in Washington state involve collaboration with local jails, and reveals a high rate of at-large arrests in King County.

Court records documenting immigration-related offenses in Washington State reveal numerous cases of Washington residents being federally prosecuted and potentially deported as a result of consequences cascading from what was an initially minor offense.

A few days ago, a neighbor thanked me for my work in human rights. She shook her head as she said it, as if to convey the impression that our work is a depressing act of service performed amid challenging times—but I told her it’s quite the opposite.

Megan Ybarra is an Associate Professor in the UW Department of Geography, and a faculty associate of the UW Center for Human Rights. Her new book, Green Wars: Conservation and Decolonization in the Maya Forest, published by University of California Press, examines how environmental projects have contributed to the criminalization and displacement of Q’eqchi’ Maya communities in lowlands Guatemala.