Coalition Urges United Nations to Act on Trump Administration’s Use of Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detentions Against Immigrants

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2025

Media Contact:

Karen Hernández, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law: press@centerforhumanrights.org 

Coalition Urges United Nations to Act on Trump Administration’s Use of Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detentions Against Immigrants

Santa Ana, California - The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, together with a coalition of immigrant and human rights organizations, has submitted an appeal for United Nations (UN) intervention to six UN human rights bodies - including the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, and Reparation. The communication details a systemic campaign under the Trump administration targeting immigrant communities across the U.S. through policies and practices that violate both domestic and international human rights law. 

Since January 2025, the administration has: 

1. Almost entirely closed the border to asylum seekers; 

2. Increased expedited removals; 

3. Encouraged immigration enforcement raids in protected spaces like schools, hospitals, and courthouses; 

4. Ended the Refugee Admissions Programs; 

5. Deployed military forces domestically at the southern border; 

6. Created public registries of undocumented immigrants; 

7. Revoked humanitarian protections such as parole programs; 

8. Sought billions of dollars in funding to construct new mass detention centers; 

9. Sought to end birthright citizenship; and,

10. Targeted so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with federal assaults on immigrants. 

These actions have occurred alongside a large-scale operation of arresting, arbitrarily detaining, and forcibly disappearing immigrants - including undocumented individuals, visa holders, and even lawful permanent residents - into prisons both in the U.S. and abroad.

“The scale of these ever-evolving and intensifying abuses is unprecedented, and they constitute a massive human rights violation,” said Sergio Perez, Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “The widespread use of disappearances and arbitrary detention by the Trump administration is a deliberate strategy to dismantle legal protections and terrorize immigrant communities. These authoritarian tactics violate U.S. and international law, and they must be exposed and condemned at the highest international levels.”

The coalition is urging the United Nations bodies to formally investigate these grave violations of human rights law and request from the government concrete steps it will take to return the disappeared and arbitrarily detained individuals to their families and communities. Finally, the coalition also warns that the administration’s abuses against immigrants risk fueling crimes against humanity not only within the United States, but globally, by emboldening other authoritarian regimes to adopt similarly unlawful and dehumanizing tactics. 

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The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) is a legal non-profit committed to protecting and advancing the rights of immigrants through legal action, advocacy, and education. Through impact litigation, we challenge unlawful immigration policies to drive systemic change and establish stronger legal protections for immigrants. At the local, state, and federal levels, we advocate for fair and humane policies that uphold the rights of all immigrants. https://www.centerforhumanrights.org/