The Center Has Joined with Advocacy Groups to Urge the United Nations to Address the United States' Escalating Abuse of Immigrants, Asylum Seekers

Press Release

For Immediate Release: April 8, 2025

Contact: Brittany Novoa

Email: press@centerforhumanrights.org

The Center has joined with advocacy groups to urge the United Nations to address United States’ escalating abuse of immigrants, asylum seekers

Santa Ana, California—Yesterday, a group of 23 nonprofit organizations published a report urging the United Nations to address the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation of non-citizens in the United States. The report was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to formally review U.S. policies and practices in November.

The participating organizations called out the U.S. government’s ongoing violations of non-citizens’ fundamental rights through mass detention, denial of due process, abusive and discriminatory policing, labor exploitation, and suppression of civic space. 

The report cites specific examples such as the U.S. government’s collaboration with private prison companies that are notorious for abuse; the detention and mistreatment of migrant children; the indefinite suspension of the U.S. refugee system and blocking access to lawful asylum at the U.S.-MX border; President Trump’s recent invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to unilaterally detain and disappear immigrants; ICE’s deceptive and invasive methods of arrest; and the escalating retaliation against non-citizens who engage in political speech. 

“For asylum-seekers and refugees who have often fled crippling economic deprivation and unimaginable horrors—extreme violence, torture, and devastating war and conflict, often at the hands of their own governments—in search of peace and safety, the United States instead meets them with the brutality and violence they sought to escape,” said Sergio Perez, Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “The U.S. must be held accountable for its deliberate disregard of the fundamental human rights of adults and children seeking a better life.”

The UN Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva from November 3-14, 2025 for its standard Universal Periodic Review (UPR). During the UPR process, each UN Member State undergoes a peer review of its human rights record and receives recommendations for improvement. The last United States review was in 2020 under the first Trump administration. 

The report suggests specific UN recommendations for each U.S. violation, including ending the for-profit immigration detention model, rescinding the bans suspending asylum and refugee admissions and processing, and restoring and ensuring independent oversight in U.S. immigration enforcement. 

The full group of participating organizations includes Amnesty International, AVAN Immigrant Services, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Community Justice Project, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Global Rights Advocacy, Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), Hope Border Institute, Human Rights First, Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA), International Refugee Assistance Project, Muslim Advocates, National Immigration Project, Physicians for Human Rights, Public Counsel, Refugee Council USA, Refugees International, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Southern Border Communities Coalition, The Advocates for Human Rights, and United Stateless.

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The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law 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.