Reports

How the U Visa Builds Trust, Counters Fear, and Promotes Community Safety

The 50-page report, “‘We Need U’: How the U Visa Builds Trust, Counters Fear, and Promotes Community Safety,” finds that the administration’s deportation policies undermine federal visa programs that provide a pathway for crime victims to obtain legal residency when they cooperate with law enforcement. Changed enforcement guidance, such as allowing Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to apprehend people in previously safe places like courthouses and health centers, is a strong deterrent for immigrants who might otherwise report crime to police or seek a protective order.


 

Federal agents detain a woman exiting an immigration court hearing
A woman looks out of the window of a damaged building

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  • June 2, 2003

    Crime and Insecurity under British Occupation

    This report, based on four weeks of field research by Human Rights Watch researchers in southern Iraq, shows that more than six weeks after the fall of Basra, the security situation remained poorly addressed by coalition forces.
  • May 28, 2003

    The Truth Uncovered

    This report attempts to tell the story of the mass graves around al-Hilla. It identifies the victims, the circumstances of their arrest, and their ultimate execution and mass burial.
  • May 20, 2003

    Freedom of Expression in Venezuela

    The Venezuelan government is not doing enough to protect journalists from violence, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
  • May 13, 2003

    State-Sponsored Homophobia and its Consequences in Southern Africa

    Many leaders in southern Africa have singled out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as scapegoats for their countries' problems, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) state in this report.
  • May 13, 2003

    Human Rights Watch urged Bhutan and Nepal to implement a screening and repatriation process that protects the human rights of more than one hundred thousand refugees of Nepalese ethnicity who were arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship and forced to flee Bhutan in the early 1990s.
  • May 9, 2003

    Attacks on Refugees and Other Foreigners and Their Treatment in Jordan

    Attacks and harassment amidst the security vacuum in Iraq forced refugees and other foreigners to flee the country and become refugees again, this time in Jordan. Based on research in Baghdad and Jordan, this 22-page Human Rights Watch report details the abuses against refugees and foreigners in Iraq, as well as their treatment upon arrival in Jordan.
  • May 8, 2003

    This briefing paper analyzes the new peace plan in the light of previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements – all of which fatally ignored basic human rights and international humanitarian law protections. Instead, the plans let abuses proliferate to the point where they undermined the entire negotiating process.
  • May 8, 2003

    Tightening Control in the Name of Unity

    The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) is labeling possible political opponents "divisionist" and taking steps to silence them in order to ensure victory in upcoming elections.
  • May 6, 2003

    Police Misconduct, Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada

    An anti-drug crackdown by the Vancouver Police Department has driven injection drug users away from life-saving HIV prevention services, raising fears of a new wave of HIV transmission in the city that is already home to the worst AIDS crisis in the developed world, said Human Rights Watch.

  • May 1, 2003

    The Uzbek government persecutes human rights defenders and obstructs human rights work, in violation of its international commitments. In the past twelve months alone, it has imprisoned six human rights defenders and harassed numerous others.
  • April 30, 2003

    Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu of the Democratic Front for Burundi (Front pour la Dmocratie au Burundi, Frodebu), will take over the presidency of Burundi from Major Pierre Buyoya, on April 30. The new government must deliver on promises to end a nine-year long war and to deliver justice for the many violations of international humanitarian law committed during the war.
  • April 29, 2003

    Child Soldiers in Angola

    Child soldiers who fought in the Angolan civil war have been excluded from demobilization programs, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. April marks the one-year anniversary of the agreement that brought peace to mainland Angola in 2002.