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Press Release

In response to the humanitarian volunteer Dr. Scott Warren being found not guilty of the charges against him in a court in Arizona today, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

November 20, 2019

Press Release

For World Children’s Day on November 20, Amnesty International USA is calling for the United States government to stop detaining children who seek safety in the United States, with new billboards targeting the Trump administration. As part of the I Welcome campaign, Amnesty International USA has launched billboards in Florida targeting the detention of children seeking safety. The human rights organization chose Florida after in-depth research into the Homestead, Florida facility, which Amnesty International USA found violated children’s rights by holding them in prolonged and indefinite detention and keeping them in conditions that did not meet U.S. or international standards, violating the best…

November 19, 2019

Press Release

Responding to a new interim final rule that seeks to implement asylum cooperative agreements between the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, Charanya Krishnaswami, the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA said: “The administration has bullied the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras into signing agreements that will be deadly for people seeking asylum and is now carrying out their fatal application. This rule is potentially the most dangerous and dramatic step yet that the Trump administration has taken to eviscerate the right to seek asylum here, foreclosing all forms of protection for people who…

November 18, 2019

Press Release

Responding to reports that the Department of Health and Human Services will not renew its contract with Comprehensive Health Services in the Homestead detention center in Florida, Denise Bell, researcher for refugee and migrant rights, said: "While this is a step in the right direction, no child should be held in detention because of their immigration status. The Office of Refugee Resettlement has argued that unaccompanied children don’t need to released within 20 days – the national standard for detention.  This is unacceptable. A child is a child and children deserve to be free and with their families." Background In July,…

October 28, 2019

Press Release

Turkey spent the months leading up to its military incursion into northeast Syria forcibly deporting refugees to the war-torn country, in advance of attempting to create a so-called “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border, new Amnesty International research has revealed.

October 24, 2019

Report

Amnesty International USA today called on U.S. government contractor, Comprehensive Health Services, to end its operations at the Homestead detention center in Florida. A new briefing, No Home for Children: End the Contract to Operate the Homestead ‘Temporary Emergency’ Facility, exposes how Comprehensive Health Services is contributing to the U.S. government’s violations of the rights of unaccompanied children, who are held in prolonged and indefinite detention at Homestead. The briefing concludes that, by running the center and providing core services, the for-profit company is enabling the government to detain children at Homestead. “Children should never be detained because of their…

October 18, 2019

Press Release

In response to the Trump Administration’s continued assault on the U.S. refugee resettlement program, 18 leaders from the nation’s leading faith and human rights organizations, as well as a former State Department official, were arrested on Capitol Hill as part of the first ever act of civil disobedience in the name of refugee resettlement. Those 18 arrested represented the 18,000 refugee cap set by the Trump administration - the lowest in the history of the resettlement program. Those arrested were joined by supporters holding 95 photographs of refugees, a nod to the historic average refugee cap of 95,000 per year.…

October 15, 2019

Press Release

On Tuesday, October 15th, 18 protestors--including heads of Amnesty International USA, America’s Voice, CAIR, and Church World Service, as well as a former Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration--will risk arrest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The leaders will wear life vests symbolizing the life-saving refugee resettlement program.  Faith communities, human rights groups, clergy, refugees, and refugee agencies will hold a major action on Capitol Hill as Secretary Pompeo meets with Congress to finalize the administration’s 80% cut to the refugee admissions program.   WHAT: Protest and Civil Disobedience Responding to Decimation of Refugee Resettlement …

October 11, 2019

Press Release

Judge Dolly Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles today issued a ruling halting the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate the 1997 Flores Agreement. The Flores Agreement mandates that children cannot be held in immigrant detention for more than 20 days.

September 27, 2019

Press Release

Responding to reports of a cooperative agreement between the United States and Honduras, which would potentially force certain asylum-seekers to request asylum there, Charanya Krishnaswami, the advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, said:

September 25, 2019

Press Release

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the BURMA Act, legislation which would advance efforts to hold senior Myanmar military leaders accountable for crimes against the Rohingya and against other ethnic minorities in Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan States.

September 24, 2019

Press Release

Ahead of further protests expected on Friday, world leaders must confront President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and utterly condemn the crackdown he has waged to counter the outbreak of protests in recent days, said Amnesty International as heads of state meet at the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

September 24, 2019