May, 15 2020, 12:00am EDT
Immigrant Rights Groups Call on Governors, Health Officials to Release People in Immigration Detention
WASHINGTON
Nearly two dozen human rights, immigrant rights, and civil rights advocates and service providers are coming together to seek the release of immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention.
In the face of continued refusal by federal authorities to use discretion to release people from immigration detention, the groups will leverage the influence of their grassroots supporters to petition the governors of California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington to take action to urge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention. Releasing people in immigration detention will not only protect them but also facility staff and the communities where detention centers are located in their states, the groups said.
"As the government official responsible for the health and safety of your state's residents, I urge you to take all possible actions to press ICE to release immigrants and asylum-seekers detained in your state without delay and that all appropriate steps are taken to protect them, facility staff, and the broader public from the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in ICE detention facilities," read the petition sent to Governors Gavin Newsom, Phil Murphy, Tom Wolf, John Bel Edwards, Greg Abbott and Jay Inslee.
Today's action represents stepped-up pressure from human rights, immigrant rights, and civil rights advocates and service providers to urge governors and state-level health officials to act. In early March, some of these same groups urged state and local governments to release those held in ICE custody. But ICE continues to detain vulnerable individuals in conditions ripe for the spread of disease, even in detention centers where staff and/or other detainees have already tested positive for COVID-19.
The groups are:
- ALDEA - The People's Justice Center (PA)
- Amnesty International USA (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) (CA)
- Centro Legal de la Raza (CA)
- Families Belong Together (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Human Rights First (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Human Rights Watch (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Immigrant Defense Advocates (CA)
- Immigration Justice Campaign, an initiative of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Council (NJ)
- Innovation Law Lab (CA LA TX)
- ISLA Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (LA)
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (CA)
- National Immigrant Justice Center (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Never Again Action (CA, WA, NJ, PA)
- Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (WA)
- OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- Oxfam America (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX)
- Physicians for Human Rights (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
- RAICES (TX)
- SPLC Action Fund (LA)
- Women's Refugee Commission (CA, WA, NJ, PA, TX, LA)
Public health experts predict that - unless ICE drastically reduces the numbers of detained immigrants in its care - once there are five or more cases in a facility between 72 percent and 100 percent of detainees in that facility could contract COVID-19 within a 90-day period. Continued detention endangers detainees and could overwhelm hospital capacity, impacting the health of the local communities where detention centers are located. Already one immigrant in detention has died of COVID-19 at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California.
In a joint statement, the groups are asking these governors to take action and stand up to ICE in a collective action:
"ICE has a well-documented history of medical abuse and neglect. Since the onset of the pandemic, ICE facilities have failed to provide detainees with sufficient soap and sanitizer, neglected to facilitate physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within crowded facilities, and continued to transfer detainees between facilities at grave risk to their health. Even before COVID-19, the needless, arbitrary detention of immigrants and asylum-seekers in inadequate conditions with negligent medical care violated human rights and caused untold human suffering.
"We are coming together to amplify pressure on ICE to act. As states address the public health and humanitarian challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are urging governors to use their public health authority to press ICE and federal immigration detention facilities and county and local jails and prisons to immediately and substantially reduce occupancy in facilities detaining immigrants and asylum-seekers. We hope that they will hear us and act swiftly to save lives."
To learn more about this effort visit: https://rightsnow.amnestyusa.org/free-people-from-ice-detention/
This release is available at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/governors-release-people-in-immigration-detention/
People can donate to Amnesty International USA's COVID-19 advocacy work at: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/57034/donate
Media Contacts:
Amnesty International USA: Mariya Parodi, media@aiusa.org; (212) 633-4211
HRF: Meredith MacKenzie, hrf@westendstrategy.com, (202) 412 -4270
HRW: Grace Sung Ehn Meng, mengg@hrw.org, (646) 363-6495
Oxfam America: Alyssa Eisenstein, alyssa.eisenstein@oxfam.org, (202) 560-2652
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights: Rafael Medina, medina@civilrights.org (202) 869-0390
Centro Legal de la Raza: Lisa Knox, lknox@centrolegal.org, (415) 684-4783
Women's Refugee Commission: Joanna Kuebler, joannak@wrcommission.org, (646) 255-5586
Never Again Action: neveragainactionpress@gmail.com
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project: Raul Alvarez, raul@nwirp.org
RAICES: Lucia Allain, lucia.allain@raicestexas.org, (646) 488-5919
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400LATEST NEWS
Trump Cancels Kushner-Witkoff Trip as Iran Suggests US Not 'Truly Serious About Diplomacy'
US President Donald Trump complained that his envoys' planned trip to Pakistan's capital would be "too much work."
Apr 25, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned visit by two of his administration's negotiators to the Pakistani capital for diplomatic talks to end his illegal war on Iran, complaining that the trip would be "too much work."
The president announced his decision after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad on Saturday, writing in a social media post that he relayed to Pakistani officials "Iran's position concerning a workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran." Araghchi added that he has "yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy."
Iranian officials said repeatedly in recent days that they had no intention of engaging in direct talks with the Trump administration this weekend as long as the US naval blockade remained in effect. Despite clear statements from Iran's leadership, the Trump White House insisted that special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff would be holding another round of direct negotiations with Iranian officials in Islamabad after earlier talks ended without a deal.
"This has happened repeatedly: Trump claims the Iranians are begging for talks, Iran says it is false," observed Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill. "The US says Iran is lying, and then it becomes clear Iran meant what it said."
In an assessment published before Trump canceled his envoys' trip, Scahill wrote that "there is no question it is the US that is seeking direct talks right now, not Iran."
"Iran still believes it is likely the US and Israel will resume the war and has indicated it has prepared new forms of retaliatory strikes and other actions, including in the Strait of Hormuz," Scahill added. "Its military commanders have said that while the US has moved more military assets into the region during the 'ceasefire,' Tehran has also taken this period to prepare its own weapons systems for more fighting."
Trump insisted Saturday that his administration—whose deeply unpopular and deadly war of choice has sparked a global economic disaster—holds "all the cards" and that Iranian leadership is in turmoil. But Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, wrote that "Trump can’t hide exuding desperation for a deal."
"So he invents 'fractures' in Tehran to explain being repeatedly stood up," Toossi added. "Iran’s line is unchanged: demanding the blockade be lifted and holding on to its core red lines. They’re playing hardball. He’s spinning."
Trump's cancellation of the Kushner-Witkoff trip came hours after NBC News reported that "American military bases and other equipment in the Persian Gulf region suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair."
"The Iran war was a tactical and strategic disaster," said Toossi. "Despite heavy efforts to control the narrative, it’s becoming clear just how much US bases and equipment in the region were damaged or destroyed. The war backfired and inflicted far more damage than its proponents want to admit."
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"Warehouse facilities are built for storing products, not people."
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Communities across the United States are mobilizing on Saturday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement's aggressive expansion of warehouse detention projects nationwide, as deaths in ICE custody continue to soar under the Trump administration.
Saturday's day of action is expected to include over 200 demonstrations, from Atlanta, Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah to Alexandria, Louisiana, according to organizers, who said the events will elevate local opposition to President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation agenda. The groups behind the day of protests include the Disappeared In America coalition, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, and Workers Circle.
"Detention is deadly," said Nanci Palacios, organizing and membership director at Detention Watch Network. "People in immigration detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is. What we’re seeing now is heightened cruelty under the Trump administration. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of in detention warehouses or any detention facility—full stop. We demand an end to Trump’s cruel mass detention expansion and that detention facilities be shut down for good.”
Enabled by tens of billions of dollars in funding that congressional Republicans and Trump approved last summer, ICE has been buying up commercial warehouses and moving to convert them into detention centers with the capacity to hold up to 10,000 people. Business Insider reported earlier this month that since January, ICE "has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying at least 11 massive facilities in eight states," including Utah, Georgia, and New Jersey.
But the American Immigration Council noted earlier this year that "local advocacy and outrage" have blocked ICE attempts to purchase at least a dozen warehouses.
Saturday's actions aim to build on that local opposition. “Communities are fed up with ICE’s brutality, chaos, and terror," said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn Civic Action. "Across the country, everyday people are rising up against the Trump administration’s plans to cage tens of thousands of immigrant kids and families in their backyards."
"Backlash to ICE converting warehouses into massive detention centers has been swift, vocal, and growing," Bethel said. "We will not stop protesting until contracts and expansion plans are canceled. With gas prices skyrocketing, healthcare premiums exploding, and the cost of living growing exponentially unaffordable, we need elected leaders to invest in our communities, not in cages.”
Leah Greenberg, co-director of Indivisible, added that "warehouse facilities are built for storing products, not people."
"Converting them into detention centers exposes our neighbors to unsafe, degrading, and inhumane conditions, harms surrounding communities, and locks states into long-term infrastructure without public input," Greenberg added.
Nearly 50 people have died in ICE custody during Trump's second term in the White House, which has seen a massive and lawless expansion of immigrant detention and deportation efforts.
Ahead of Saturday's demonstrations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced legislation that would prohibit ICE from "establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people." Tlaib's office noted that "ICE is actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses nationwide into new immigration detention and processing facilities," which would "rapidly increase detention capacity to 92,600."
"We do not want ICE cages in our communities," said Tlaib. "ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] are murdering people in the streets, tearing families apart, abducting our neighbors, and locking them in cages. Now they are attempting to buy and convert warehouses across our country into massive prison camps to expand their operations, despite strong local opposition in communities like mine."
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"Responsibility for these crimes also lies with Israel’s allies, who continue to allow the Netanyahu government to commit them with impunity."
Apr 25, 2026
Global press freedom organizations are demanding an immediate international probe into the Israeli military's apparently targeted killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who died trapped under the rubble of a home bombed by Israeli forces earlier this week.
The calls for an urgent independent investigation came as the details surrounding Khalil's killing in southern Lebanon continued to emerge. Khalil's body was recovered by the Lebanese army and Red Cross rescue workers around six hours after the Israeli military bombed the house in which she took cover with fellow journalist Zeinab Faraj—who was badly injured in the attack—following an Israeli strike near their car. Israeli forces obstructed rescue operations by continuing to attack the area.
Reporters Without Borders, known internationally as Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), published an in-depth timeline of events, making the case that the Israeli military intentionally targeted Khalil and interfered with rescue efforts:
- At around 14:30 [Paris time]: a first Israeli strike targets a car near the vehicle carrying Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj. The two journalists survive the attack and manage to exit their vehicle.
- 14:52: Amal Khalil is contacted by Al Jazeera’s correspondent in southern Lebanon, Carmen Joukhadar. The call lasts nine seconds. “I could clearly hear that she was running and out of breath while speaking to me, but she told me she was fine,” he told RSF.
- Between 15:00 and 16:00: rescuers await authorization from the diplomatic committee—known as the “mechanism”—which, among other roles, serves as guarantor and mediator for the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in order to access the site. The committee, established in November 2024 under the auspices of France and the United States, also includes the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
- Around 16:00: a second strike targets the journalists’ car. Hiding nearby, Amal Khalil calls her colleagues to inform them of the attack, then takes refuge, with Zeinab Faraj, in a three-story house located nearby.
- 16:22: last contact with Amal Khalil. According to her sister, who was on the phone with her at the time, Amal Khalil was unharmed. After this call, the journalist’s phone went dead.
- 16:27: a third Israeli strike targets the house. According to RSF, the strike was carried out by a military aircraft, not a drone. Smoke was captured in a photograph taken by Carmen Joukhadar from the neighboring village of Khiam.
- Around 16:40: Lebanese army and nearby rescue teams are unable to reach the location of the two journalists due to ongoing strikes.
- Around 18:00: the Red Cross finally manages to evacuate Zeinab Faraj, who was suffering from fractures. According to the Lebanese TV channel LBCI, a flash grenade fired by Israeli forces forced the ambulance to retreat without being able to save Amal Khalil. Zeinab Faraj was taken to the local hospital in the nearby village of Tibnin.
- Around 19:20: the Lebanese army decides to accompany the Red Cross despite lacking authorization from the “mechanism” given the urgency of the situation.
- Around 20:20: the Red Cross returns to the scene, accompanied by the Lebanese army and bulldozers begin rescue operations.
- 23:10: the army and the Red Cross publicly announce that they have found Amal Khalil’s lifeless body on the ground floor of the building. The exact time of her death is yet to be determined.
Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF's Middle East desk, said in a statement that "so long as impunity prevails, crimes will continue to be committed."
"The Israeli army has very likely committed two more war crimes on 22 April, by targeting journalists who were identified as such, obstructing rescue operations, and continuing strikes that killed one journalist and injured another," said Dagher. "Responsibility for these crimes also lies with Israel’s allies, who continue to allow the Netanyahu government to commit them with impunity."
"We call on the international community to take firm measures to ensure that the Israeli government brings its massacre of journalists in Lebanon and Palestine to an end," Dagher added. "We also call on the Lebanese government to investigate this crime, which took place on Lebanese territory, and will continue to work to ensure that justice is served for Amal Khalil and every single other journalist killed in Lebanon and the wider region."
I urge everyone to watch this report by Channel 4 News about Israel’s killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil.
“Under international humanitarian law, journalists are afforded the same protection as civilians… If that journalist has a particular sympathy with a particular… pic.twitter.com/uzxCENNUqi
— Hamza Yusuf (@Hamza_a96) April 24, 2026
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also demanded an independent investigation into Khalil's killing, which the group described as a possible war crime.
CPJ noted that Khalil "received numerous threats prior to her killing, including a reported death threat in September 2024, and public incitement against her by an Israeli military official days before her killing, leading to widespread accusations that she was deliberately targeted. The reported obstruction of rescue operations, claimed by Lebanese government officials, constitute an additional grave violation of international humanitarian law."
Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ's chief executive, said in a statement that "this is not the first time that Israel has prevented emergency services from reaching journalists injured in their strikes."
"Journalists are civilians and protected under international law," said Ginsberg. "Israel’s blatant disregard for such norms—and the international community’s failure to hold them accountable—is abhorrent."
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told reporters on Friday that "deliberately targeting" journalists or rescue workers "would amount to a war crime," pointing specifically to Israel's killing of Amal Khalil and obstruction of emergency teams.
"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into all incidents involving allegations of violations of international humanitarian law," said the commissioner's spokesperson. "Findings must be disclosed, and those responsible held to account."
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