• Unfair Immigration Policies

    While international law permits states to establish immigration policies and deportation procedures, it does not grant them discretion to violate human rights in the process. The United States regularly fails to uphold international human rights law in its immigration laws and enforcement policies, by violating the rights of immigrants to fair treatment at the hands of government, to proportional sanctions, to freedom from arbitrary detention, to respect for the right to family unity, and to protection from return to persecution. Such policies violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Refugee Convention, treaties to which the United States is party.

  • A group of farmworkers makes their way across a field, hoeing weeds out of the rows, in the early morning on July 11, 2011.
    © 2011 AP Photo
    US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworkers
    Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in its 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.”
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    Why Immigrant Stories Matter
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Reports

  • Cultivating Fear
    The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment
  • No Way to Live
    Alabama’s Immigrant Law
  • A Costly Move
    Far and Frequent Transfers Impede Hearings for Immigrant Detainees in the United States

Unfair Immigration Policies

  • Update: ICE Limits Immigrant Detainee Transfers
    May 22, 2012
    US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has fully implemented its new directive on immigration detainee transfers, which limits ICE’s ability to transfer detainees with nearby immediate family or attorneys of record to other detention facilities.
  • Update: Alabama Governor Signs Dangerous Amendments
    May 21, 2012
    On May 18, Governor Robert Bentley signed HB 658 into law, despite expressing concerns about the amended version of the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. Human Rights Watch renewed its call to the Alabama legislature and Governor Bentley to repeal the Beason-Hammon Act and the recent amendments to it.
  • Alabama: Seek Full Repeal of Anti-Immigrant Law
    May 18, 2012
    Alabama Governor Robert Bentley should call for the full repeal of the state’s immigrant law. It violates the right to equal protection under the law, and attempts to amend it do not address its basic flaws.
  • US: New Prison Rape Standards Offer Landmark Protection
    May 17, 2012
    The long awaited national prison rape elimination standards issued on May 17, 2012 by the Justice Department, if fully implemented, may end widespread prison rape in the United States. The standards provide detailed guidance to federal, state, and local officials on how to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse in their confinement facilities.
  • US: House Vote a Step Backward for Women’s Rights
    May 17, 2012
    The US Congress should move forward with a Senate bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and reject the dangerous alternative passed by the House of Representatives.
  • US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworkers
    May 15, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in its 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.”
  • US: House Bill Puts Immigrant Women at Risk
    May 9, 2012
    The full US House of Representatives should reject a dangerous version of a bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Human Rights Watch said today. The bill would undermine the law and expose immigrant women and families to abuse, Human Rights Watch said. The House Judiciary Committee on May 8, 2012 approved a version that makes multiple changes to VAWA’s existing provisions addressing immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence.
  • US: Senate Vote on Violence Against Women Act a Victory
    Apr 26, 2012
    The US House of Representatives should move quickly to renew the Violence against Women Act (VAWA), Human Rights Watch said today. The US Senate, in a bipartisan vote on April 26, 2012, passed the bill, the primary federal law providing legal protection and services to counter domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
  • Addressing violence against all women
    Apr 20, 2012
    The bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces a likely vote in the Senate next week, but its provisions that would assist immigrant women who are victims of violence have drawn some inexplicable opposition. The country’s single most important law for addressing domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking has offered life-saving protections to immigrant women since it first passed in 1994.
  • Alabama: Repeal Unjust Immigrant Law
    Apr 10, 2012
    A bill before the Alabama legislature to amend the state’s law restricting immigrant rights does little to remedy the severe harm caused by the law. The Alabama House of Representatives Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will hold a public hearing on the amendments, contained in House Bill (HB) 658, on April 11, 2012.
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