A new constitutional amendment proposed to Congress in June 2023 would remove the exception for prisoners to the U.S. ban on slavery. The effort follows a report from Arizona in December 2022, which found that private firms in the state used over two dozen undocumented migrant workers they could never legally hire but for the fact they were incarcerated by the state Department of Correction, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR).
Private Prison Contracts and Minimum Occupancy Clauses
By Stephanie Leacock The private prison industry has become incredibly lucrative, with the two largest for-profit prison companies bringing in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue as of 2015.[1] The federal government and state governments increasingly depend on private prisons to house inmates in the United States, with approximately seven percent of state prisoners…
USA: Torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at "Alligator Alcatraz" and Krome in Florida - Amnesty International
This report presents Amnesty International’s findings from a research trip to southern Florida in September 2025, to document the human rights impacts of federal and state migration and asylum policies on mass detention and deportation, access to due process, and detention conditions since President Trump took office on 20 January 2025. In particular, it focuses […]
USA: Torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at "Alligator Alcatraz" and Krome in Florida - Amnesty International
This report presents Amnesty International’s findings from a research trip to southern Florida in September 2025, to document the human rights impacts of federal and state migration and asylum policies on mass detention and deportation, access to due process, and detention conditions since President Trump took office on 20 January 2025. In particular, it focuses […]
Unauthorized Immigration Effects on Local Labor Markets
The large increase and subsequent decline of unauthorized immigrant workers in recent years have raised questions about the impact of these changes on local labor markets across the United States. New analysis linking immigration data with employment data for specific areas suggests that the rapid rise in unauthorized immigrant worker flows increased local employment roughly one-for-one. Extending the analysis to the industry level further suggests that the slowdown of net immigration had a large negative impact on local employment, particularly for construction and manufacturing.
Private Prisons in the United States – The Sentencing Project
Twenty-seven states and the federal government incarcerated 90,873 people in private prisons in 2022, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population.
“Warehousing Human Beings”
Former immigration judge Andrea Sáenz and American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on the conditions at Delaney Hall and other ICE detention centers across the U.S.
Federal Court Rules Speech-Based Deportations Violate the First Amendment
The decision goes further than other similar recent rulings.
In 1998, a man illegally cut holes in a Tucson street curb. The result changed the law.
He ratted himself out to the city when it was clear his water diversion plan had worked.
10,000 rulings: The courts’ overwhelming rebuke of Trump’s ICE policies
A POLITICO analysis reveals judges have ruled against ICE detention practices in roughly 90 percent of cases since the agency mandated that millions of immigrants must be locked up while they face deportation proceedings.
Freedom to Write Index 2025
For the first time ever, the Freedom to Write Index documented more than 400 writers in prison in 2025, including in the United States.
Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp | American Civil Liberties Union
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
House Democrats Introduce Bill to Help Wrongfully Detained Citizens Sue ICE — ProPublica
We recently reported that more than 500 American citizens have been detained by immigration agents. Now House members are moving to make it easier for those detained to seek justice through the courts.
Wage Theft Costs American Workers as Much as $50 Billion a Year
Wage theft is a nationwide epidemic that costs American workers as much as $50 billion a year, a new Economic Policy Institute report finds. In An Epidemic of Wage Theft Is Costing Workers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year, EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey and EPI intern Brady Meixell examine incidences of wage theft—employers’…
USA: « We had whistles, they had guns »: Human Rights Violations in U.S. Immigration Enforcement Operations and the Case to Abolish ICE
Amnesty International has documented that, since taking office on 20 January 2025, the Trump administration has subjected migrants, asylum seekers and refugees to a wide range of human rights violations. The administration is implementing a mass detention and deportation system, fuelled by racist, xenophobic and false narratives and white supremacist theories, whose objective is to […]
Federal judge extends order requiring access to lawyers for Minnesota immigration detainees
A federal judge has extended her order requiring that federal authorities give immigrants detained in Minnesota access to attorneys immediately.
USA: "We had whistles, they had guns": Human Rights Violations in U.S. Immigration Enforcement Operations and the Case to Abolish ICE - Amnesty International
Amnesty International has documented that, since taking office on 20 January 2025, the Trump administration has subjected migrants, asylum seekers and refugees to a wide range of human rights violations. The administration is implementing a mass detention and deportation system, fuelled by racist, xenophobic and false narratives and white supremacist theories, whose objective is to […]