politics of immigration

North America

UN rights chief: investigate deaths in ICE custody

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for independent investigations into dozens of deaths in US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. He urged authorities to take immediate measures to prevent further fatalities as the number of deaths in detention continues to rise. Türk noted that at least 52 people have died in ICE custodysince the beginning of 2025, following President Donald Trump’s return to office and the start of the administration’s expanded immigration enforcement policies. According to official figures, 18 people died in ICE detention during the first five months of this year, with an additional death recorded in June, while 33 deaths were documented during 2025 overall—compared with 11 in 2024. (Photo: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)

North Africa

Tunisia: overturn convictions of anti-racism activists

Amnesty International urged Tunisian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release” anti-racism activist Saadia Mosbah and five of her colleagues, and called on the Tunis appellate court to overturn their convictions. Mosbah and her colleagues are affiliated with the anti-racism and human rights organization Mnemty (“My Dream”), with Mosbah serving as president. In May 2024, Mosbah and several other activists, including her co-defendants, were arrested on charges of money laundering and “illicit enrichment.” In March, the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced Mosbah to eight years in prison, while her colleagues were given terms of between one and three years. Rights organizations call the charges a miscarriage of justice, and assert that the investigative judge presiding in the case failed to provide any conclusive evidence that the activists had engaged in illegal financial activities. (Photo: Huda1977 via Wikimedia Commons)

North America

HRW: Minnesota ICE raids violated human rights

Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed abuses endured by communities in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the occupation of the Twin Cities area by immigration officers. According to HRW, officers terrorized residents, committed widespread human rights violations, and exposed “deeply abusive” tendencies within US immigration enforcement. (Photo: Chad Davis)

South Asia

India prepares mass detention of Rohingya

Indian authorities have deported thousands of Bangladeshi citizens in the month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won elections in the state of West Bengal. Shortly after taking power in West Bengal, BJP officials ordered the creation of detention centers both for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing persecution in their native Burma and mistreatment in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. (Image: Sowmya Reddy)

Africa

Persistent armed attacks in Central African Republic

The UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Central African Republic, Aristide Nononsi, expressed concern about the persistent violence in the country, and its impacts on humanitarian needs. Reporting on his visit to the CAR, Nononsi noted that despite the mostly peaceful electoral process that took place in December, the country continues to face instability due to attacks by armed groups against civilians, tensions involving nomadic pastoral communities, and spillover consequences of the conflict in Sudan. (Map via Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)

New York City

New York state limits ICE enforcement activities

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that places limits on where and how Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can enforce immigration law in the state. The new legislation also prohibits state and local police from cooperating with ICE to enforce civil laws. Under the new law, local governments, police forces and corrections agencies are no longer allowed to enter 287(g) agreements, under which ICE delegates immigration enforcement to state or local officers. (Photo of ICE agents in Minnesota: Chad Davis)

Watching the Shadows

MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism III

The Justice Department “Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” has announced a national propaganda tour—as the DoJ is explicitly targeting anti-fascists for prosecution. The tour also comes as the question of Israel has emerged as the critical issue in the split within MAGA—with elements of the breakaway populist wing virtually gloating that the Israel Lobby’s support for the Trump-loyal pro-war wing will result in a backlash against Jews. Both wings of MAGA are equally reactionary, yet elements of the supposed “left” are already in a dangerous flirtation with the populist wing—and it is a Democratic congressional hopeful, Maureen Galindo of Texas, who is openly calling for mass detention of “Zionists” in repurposed ICE camps. An incipient Red-Brown alliance can be seen, fueled by the Trump regime’s ultra-cynical anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unsparing look. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)

Watching the Shadows

Trump admin has transferred 17,400 to ‘third countries’

The Trump administration has built a network of third-country transfer agreements with more than 30 governments and used them to remove over 17,400 people, in some cases in defiance of federal court orders and after individuals had won their release through habeas corpus, according to data released by Human Rights First and Refugees International. The organizations report that the administration in April re-arrested and forcibly transferred to third countries people who had previously been granted withholding of removal by US immigration judges and had prevailed on habeas petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The report documents an attempted transfer of individuals to Libya last year in violation of a court order then in effect. (Photo: Venezuelan deportees in Honduras. Credit: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

EU expands migrant detention and deportation rules

The European Union took a significant step toward adopting a Trump-like approach to migration when the EuroParliament approved a new law expanding the power of security agencies to track, detain and deport migrants. Amnesty International criticized the revised “Return Regulation” as “punitive” and a threat to fundamental rights. The law also allows for people to be deported to countries other than their country of origin—a controversial policy used by the Trump administration. Greece, an EU member, is even working directly with US officials to ramp up deportations. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)

Europe

‘Invisible’ shipwrecks hide Mediterranean death toll

Italy, Tunisia and Malta are withholding information about the true death toll from stricken vessels carrying migrants in the central Mediterranean, according to an AP report. The beginning of 2026 has been the deadliest start to a year in the Mediterranean since the UN began keeping track in 2014, with nearly 700 lives lost to date. But phone calls from people looking for missing relatives, bodies washing ashore, and other clues suggest there have been numerous “invisible” shipwrecks, and the true toll is significantly higher. (Photo: US Navy via Wikimedia Commons)

Central America

El Salvador: deportees face ‘enforced disappearance’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) raised concerns that El Salvador’s government is arbitrarily detaining and forcibly “disappearing” Salvadorans deported from the US. HRW reported that between mid-March and mid-October 2025, at least 11 Salvadoran men deported from the US to El Salvador were immediately detained, and denied contact with relatives or lawyers. Interviews with 20 relatives and attorneys revealed that none of the detainees appeared to have been brought before a judge, and in several cases, families were not informed of where the men were held or why they were detained. When relatives contacted authorities for information, officials reportedly refused to provide details, stating they lacked a legal mandate or had no record of the relatives’ connection to the detainees. (Photo: President Nayib Bukele tours CECOT. Credit: Casa Presidencial via Wikimedia Commons)

North America

Ninth Circuit: Trump may suspend refugee admissions

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that President Donald Trump has the power to suspend refugee admissions to the United States, though the court provided some relief to refugees who had already been conditionally approved before the policy was implemented. Refugees and refugee resettlement organizations filed the lawsuit challenging a January 2025 executive order signed by Trump, which suspended refugee resettlement programs in the United States. The lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Washington state, won a preliminary injunction requiring the government to continue aspects of the refugee program. The government appealed the decision, stating that the refugee program was within the president’s legal authority. The dispute may ultimately reach the US Supreme Court if the parties seek further review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision. (Photo: Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)