Türk noted that at least 52 people have died in ICE custody since 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.

Türk stressed that governments have an obligation under international human rights law to protect the right to life, particularly when individuals are deprived of their liberty. Authorities must provide detainees with adequate medical care and other necessary protections while in custody, he emphasized.

Human Rights Watch issued a similar warning on June 25. The group also noted that, under official ICE policy, the government is expected to provide families with relevant information following a death in custody, including medical records and investigative findings.

However, a report by Physicians for Human Rights concluded that in all 39 cases it reviewed, the government failed to publicly disclose sufficient information regarding the circumstances surrounding the deaths, or the medical treatment provided in detention, preventing independent clinical assessment.

Earlier this year, Türk expressed concern over US immigration enforcement practices, stating that individuals suspected of lacking legal immigration status have been arrested, “sometimes violently,” at hospitals, places of worship, courthouses, schools, markets and private homes. Noting “unnecessary or disproportionate” use of force in these detentions, he emphasized that under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is permissible only as a last resort against an individual posing an imminent threat to life.

ICE is reportedly detaining more than 60,000 individuals at present, compared with approximately 40,000 detainees in early 2025, and has announced plans to expand detention capacity to 90,000 by the end of 2026.

According to Human Rights Watch, the mortality rate in ICE custody has reached its highest level in more than a decade, exceeding rates recorded during both the first Trump administration and the COVID-19 pandemic. Rights groups and the UN have both called for urgent action to ensure accountability for deaths in custody and to safeguard the lives of those held in immigration detention.

From JURIST, June 26. Used with permission.

Photo: ICE via Wikimedia Commons

The presence of Uyghur fighters in Syria has been a presistent concern for China, helping to prompt Beijing military support for the Bashar Assad regime before it was overthrown in late 2024.

Map: PCL

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 18 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.

The statement accompanied HRW’s new report, “A Manufactured Crisis,” an in-depth accounting of the abuses committed by federal agents in the Twin Cities between December 2025 and March 2026—the duration of their deployment in Minnesota.

HRW found that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal officers engaged in racial profiling, threatened residents with lethal force, deployed chemical irritants, demolished property, and fatally shot two US citizens during their campaign.

“The federal government sent hordes of masked, armed agents to grab people off the street, whisk them away in shackles, and abuse those who sought to bear witness,” said Reagan Williams, HRW conflict and crisis researcher.

Dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” the massive deployment of ICE agents in Minnesota was part of President Donald Trump’s broader controversial immigration enforcement scheme, and was the largest interior deployment of immigration agents since he took office in January 2025. President Trump has deployed ICE agents to several cities across the US, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicated that the purpose of the federal operation was to “keep Americans safe and ERADICATE fraud,” saying they would not leave the city until they achieved the agency’s objective. However, the HRW report asserts that the occupation had the opposite effect, creating a widespread atmosphere of terror.

Throughout his new term, President Trump has made clear his intent to enforce stricter immigration and mass deportation policies, often stating that he would primarily target non-citizen residents with criminal histories. However, HRW found that during the Minnesota campaign, ICE officials detained approximately 4,000 immigrants, over 75% of whom had no criminal history, and many of whom were detained arbitrarily.

While the Trump administration has officially concluded Operation Metro Surge, its effects will reverberate through the state of Minnesota for many years to come. The city of Minneapolis has estimated nearly $700 million in community impacts, stemming from property damage, residents’ inability to go to work, and food and shelter needs. Additionally, the Trump administration is prosecuting Minnesota residents and government officials on separate charges related to impeding federal agents during the raids.

The HRW report calls for “urgent and comprehensive” action to repair the harms suffered in Minnesota, and for the federal government to stop its abuse of immigrants and other US residents.

“Operation Metro Surge put the violent and abusive practices of these agencies on full display. We have clear proof of how they operate when impunity prevails, and we need to urgently chart a new way forward through accountability and structural reforms that put an end to these abuses,” Williams added.

From JURIST, June 18. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: Chad Davis

The nearly four months of war killed at least 7,300 people in Iran and Lebanon.

Israel, the other belligerent, has lashed out at Washington over the deal, while continuing to attack Lebanon. The Israeli cabinet’s harsh words towards Washington led to a strong rebuke from US Vice President JD Vance. In an initial sign of the still-rocky road ahead, Vance’s trip to Switzerland on June 19 for talks on implementing the deal was abruptly cancelled.

Despite—or possibly because of—the signing of the MoU, which is supposed to include an end to fighting in Lebanon, the fighting there has flared again. The Israeli military reportedly killed 18 people in south Lebanon overnight on June 18-19. The rash of air-strikes followed Hezbollah’s killing of four Israeli soldiers in a southern Lebanese village, prompting furious statements from politicians such as Israeli’s extreme-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said “all of Lebanon must burn.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International released a report finding that Israel has dramatically expanded its mass “evacuation” orders as well as “don’t come back” orders, which it says “have been used as a deliberate tool to forcibly displace civilians” and prevent many of them from returning home. This, the rights watchdog says, amounts to “unlawful transfer,” which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.

From The New Humanitarian, June 19. Lightly edited; internal links added.

Image: Pixabay

Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Trump praised Sharaa as doing “an amazing job” and said: “If Israel can’t do the job [against Hezbollah] without killing everyone else, then he will do the job. Syria will do the job.”

But Trump’s comments came days after President al-Sharaa dismissed reports that Syria could become involved in the war in Lebanon as “mere rumors.”

Sources in Damascus told Asharq Al-Awsat that no official US request had been made for Syrian military intervention, and stressed that “entering the quagmire of war and sending military forces unilaterally is completely ruled out.”

The sources said that while US envoy Tom Barrack had previously urged Damascus to take a clear position against Hezbollah, discussion of deploying Syrian troops to Lebanon was “very, very early” and would only be considered in coordination with the Lebanese state.

Syria’s Interior Ministry also emphasized that “Lebanon is a sovereign state and not a backyard, as the former regime viewed it.” (Radio Free Syria)

Photo: Ahmad al-Sharaa meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Damascus, May 9. Credit: SANA via Radio Free Syria

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According to the Tiananmen Mothers group, the authorities notified family members of people who lost their lives in the 1989 crackdown that they cannot travel to Beijing’s Wan’an Cemetery or conduct any commemoration in the cemetery. Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Asia, described the ban as “heartless,” saying:

The Tiananmen Mothers were not previously blocked from cemetery visits on the 4 June anniversary, and it is deeply troubling that this year the suppression of Tiananmen commemoration appears to be escalating—reflecting the government’s deep-seated insecurity about people’s demands for accountability.

Ahead of the anniversary, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement commemorating the Chinese civilians who lost their lives for exercising their right to peaceful assembly. He said in the statement: “No amount of censorship can erase the past.” Foreign embassies in China, including those of the UK, Canada and Australia, made similar social media posts to support survivors and families of those who lost their lives in the crackdown.

In a press conference on June 4, Mao Ning, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused Rubio of distorting historical facts, smearing the Chinese political system, and interfering in China’s internal affairs.

In a June 1 press release, Human Rights Watch (HRW) also reported China’s intensifying efforts to quell commemorative activities. This includes preventing a gathering of the Tiananmen Mothers in December 2025, which has never happened since the group started meeting in 2009. HRW urged the Chinese authorities to permit an independent public inquiry into the killings, and respect the right to free speech and peaceful assembly.

The Tiananmen Mothers is an activist group made up of family members of people who lost their lives in the 1989 massacre and its aftermath. In May, the group urged the Chinese authorities to disclose the full truth of the crackdown, provide compensation for the victims and their families, and hold all responsible parties accountable.

On June 4, 1989, troops and tanks forcefully entered and cleared Tiananmen Square, where thousands of unarmed protesters, mostly students, had established an encampment. The occupation of the square began in April, when students gathered to commemorate the death of liberal Communist Party official Hu Yaobang, and call for political and economic reforms. The Chinese Communist Party called the movement a “political turmoil” that “Western hostile forces” instigated to counter socialism and the party. Hundreds and perhaps thousands were killed in the clearing of the square, with tens of thousands arrested in the subsequent repression across China.

Detained Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung has launched a 37-hour hunger strike in jail to commemorate the massacre. She has been in custody since September 2021, facing a charge of “incitement to subvert the state power,” with judgment expected in July. The prosecution has included footage of the annual candlelight vigils commemorating the massacre as evidence in the trial. The annual June 4 vigil in Hong Kong has been prohibited by authorities since 2020.

From JURIST, June 4. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last reports on the legacy of Tiananmen Square.

Photo: Hong Kong Alliance via Amnesty International

The project includes the uninhabited Adriatic island of Sazan and several hundred hectares of the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape, a sensitive coastal wetland which is home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites.

SPAK, the office of Albania’s special anti-corruption prosecutor, confirmed that it has opened an investigation into controversial changes in the area’s protected status and land ownership in 2024, which opened the door to tourism development.

The project is being spearheaded by Zvërnec South Adriatic Development, a company tied to Qatari investors as well as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The couple aims to develop a string of ambitious tourism projects in the region that they have dubbed the “Albanian Riviera.” (Greek Reporter, Politico, AP)

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The new laws are included in the state’s Fiscal Year 27 Enacted Budget. They consist of the New York for All Act and the Dignity not Detention Act. With their passage, ICE must have a judicial warrant to enter many public locations, including schools, hospitals, libraries, public parks, and polling locations. Many private locations, including houses of worship, are now explicitly allowed to require ICE to have a warrant as well. State and local employees and agencies are prohibited from sharing personal information with ICE.

The new legislation also more broadly limits cooperation with ICE by state and local employees and agencies. In particular, 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. “Police officers are taken off their jobs to do civil ICE enforcement, civil immigration enforcement,” said Hochul. “Not fighting crimes, not protecting the city, but to do ICE’s job for them. That’s what we’re ending.”

Local governments may no longer contribute to the cost of operating immigration detention centers, and they must solicit public opinion before changing zoning to allow buildings to be constructed or converted for immigrant detention.

Students’ right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is explicitly protected under the new laws, which state that students have this right regardless of immigration status. The law also limits the collection and sharing of data related to immigration status. ICE agents will also no longer be allowed to conceal their identity with masks within New York state.

From JURIST, May 30. Used with permission.

Note: The 287(g) program has been expanded by Trump, and is being aggresively embracedin Texas. Massachusetts has already prohibited the program. It has long been met with protest for inviting abuses.

Photo of ICE agents in Minnesota: Chad Davis