The women, about a dozen in all, had just finished breakfast at the Tijuana shelter when I arrived. Like many people in Mexican towns on the US border, they had been deported from the United States for not having proper documentation. When I asked them if they had kids living in the United States, most raised their hands and started crying. All these mothers, missing their children, unable to legally return to their families in the United States. I passed around tissues. These days, I always carry tissues with me.

Much of the Senate proposal is commendable, but reform to protect families will fall short if it doesn’t address the existing system’s inability to recognize the human capacity for change, or to distinguish between those who truly represent a danger to our communities and those who could instead strengthen them.

The proposed Senate immigration reform bill (S.744) would make significant changes to the complex array of laws that govern immigration in the US. Some of these changes would address longstanding and serious problems in the immigration system, but some aspects of the bill continue to threaten the rights of immigrants to family unity and due process.

Here’s a story to break your heart – thousands of Afghan refugee boys who roam Europe alone, without parents, without enough help from European governments, and at risk of destitution, detention, and death.

The US Senate is set to take an important step toward establishing landmark protections for unauthorized immigrants. The plan could grant eventual legal status to millions of people and reduce their vulnerability to human rights abuses. A summary of the proposed bill was made public on April 16, 2013, outlining significant changes to the complex array of immigration laws in the United States.

Qatar has not delivered on its pledges to improve migrant workers’ rights, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference in Doha about its World Report 2013. More than two years after it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, It is high time for Qatar to deliver on its promises for reforms to prevent the trafficking and forced labor of migrant workers, Human Rights Watch said. The Qatar Supreme Committee for Qatar 2022 – the tournament’s quasi-governmental delivery committee – has made encouraging pledges on workers’ rights, but these lack detail. Nor do they mask the failure of the Qatari authorities either to reform exploitative laws, such as the kafala system of sponsorship-based employment and the prohibition on trade unions, or to enforce the prohibition on illegal recruitment fees and the confiscation of passports.

On February 5, 2013, the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, held a hearing entitled “America’s Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration.” Human Rights Watch submitted this written statement for the record.

The Human Rights situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deteriorated rapidly during 2012, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013.

Uzbek authorities have increased the use of forced labor by adults and older children in the cotton sector during the past year. The move was apparently made to shift the burden away from younger children in response to public scrutiny and international pressure.

Italy is summarily returning unaccompanied migrant children and adult asylum seekers to Greece, where they face a dysfunctional asylum system and abusive detention conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today. Stowaways on ferries from Greece, including children as young as 13, are sent back by Italian authorities within hours without adequate consideration of their particular needs as children or their desire to apply for asylum.

President François Hollande of France should publicly and privately convey concerns about deteriorating human rights conditions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on his visit there. Hollande is scheduled to arrive for his first official visit to the UAE on January 15, 2013.

Human Rights Watch submitted this statement to inform the Human Rights Committee’s understanding of the US government’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).