Trump Administration’s Mass Deportation Operations: Update March 2026

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security believes that the escalation of hyper-militarized mass deportation operations targeting Black and Brown communities coupled with ongoing threats of national guard deployment from the Trump Administration is evidence of normalization of using military force against civilians and a red flag for the genocidal process underway in the U.S. (See our previous Red Flag Alerts and statements for the U.S.). Cities across the U.S. continue to face armed mass deportation operations as the Trump Administration deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers along with agents from other federal agencies to carry out enforcement operations under the guise of protecting public safety (See February Brief). However, these enforcement operations have resulted in human rights violations committed by the federal agents against noncitizens and citizens alike, including racial profiling, unlawful arrest, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and denial of due process. In an effort to better document the tactics and abuses of federal agents during these state-sanctioned operations, the Lemkin Institute is providing an analysis of key insights and incidents during the month of March 2026.

Mass Deportation Operations

ICE Deployment to Airports

At the end of March, the Trump Administration deployed ICE agents to airports allegedly to support Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees after funding for DHS lapsed in mid-February. DHS stated that ICE agents were to assist TSA by "guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics, doing crowd control, and verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures." Initial airports affected by this new directive were: Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston's William P. Hobby Airport, Houston's Bush Intercontinental, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport, and Southwest Florida International Airport. Videos soon surfaced of ICE agents detaining a woman in San Francisco International Airport. Two federal agents in plain clothes dragged and forcibly handcuffed a woman, confining her to an airport wheelchair.

Plans to Expand Network of Detention Centers and Reports of Inhumane Conditions

As the Trump Administration announced plans to expand its network of detention centers, reports in March continued to highlight the ongoing inhumane conditions (particularly medical neglect) inside ICE detention centers and increasing deaths in detention. Instead of relying on facilities owned by third parties, ICE announced that it is “purchasing properties across the country” and “working with contractors to design, build, and provide comprehensive services for the new detention centers.” ICE’s new detention model will “increase ICE’s ability to efficiently remove illegal aliens from our country” by creating “end-to-end operational hubs that can adjudicate cases efficiently without reliance on a dispersed infrastructure.” With its Detention Reengineering Initiative, ICE is aiming to "strategically increase bed capacity to 92,600 beds" through a mix of private and public facilities. ICE stated that “This model includes the acquisition and renovation of eight large-scale detention centers and 16 processing sites, as well as the acquisition of 10 existing 'turnkey' facilities where ICE ERO already operates.” As part of its expansion, ICE also has plans to hire up to 12,000 new officers.

NGOs and news outlets have reported on alarming patterns of medical neglect in ICE detention centers among other inhumane conditions. The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project state that they are seeing more clients with “severe medical issues or chronic illnesses” due to ICE’s practice of detaining “everyone, regardless of their medical history, regardless of whether they can obtain the medical care they need in ICE custody, and regardless of how unsafe detention conditions would be for them.” The group warns that detainees are facing "potentially life-threatening medical neglect” and that guards are “simply ignoring people’s basic needs.” One woman was detained by ICE despite experiencing “seizure-like convulsions” and has still not been sent to the hospital. Another woman is still awaiting surgery for a broken ankle in 2025. A man with late-stage cirrhosis has his appointments cancelled because an ICE directive limits services to emergency care through the emergency room and not specialist services. The man has been coughing up blood and has still not seen a specialist. Another man with a heart condition was detained by ICE and experienced a lack of access to his heart medication, severe chest pain, and trouble breathing while in detention. This man never saw a cardio specialist and received minimal monitoring and medical care despite repeated pleas for help. After experiencing a possible  cardiac episode, he was only seen by a nurse who sent him back with just Tylenol.

Other detainees have suffered severe nosebleeds, tuberculosis, acute pain, and complications from pre-existing conditions requiring surgery and have not been able to have access to needed medications or care. This had led to the deaths of detainees in ICE custody. Emmanuel Damas spent months in detention before being treated for a severe infection in his mouth and throat from an untreated tooth infection which led to sepsis and his death on March 2. An Afghan immigrant who had been evacuated to the U.S. after working for years with U.S. forces died in a Texas hospital after being detained by ICE for less than 24hrs. His death is still under investigation; however, he had been complaining of shortness of breath and chest pain and had a swollen tongue while in detention. Additionally, detainees who have experienced trauma from unlawful arrest and detention and inhumane treatment at the hands of federal agents and detention staff, do not have access to adequate mental health care. An AP investigation examined over 130 calls to 911 emergency services from detainees held in the Camp East Montana detention center on the Fort Bliss army base in El Paso. Many of the calls detailed how traumatized detainees have repeatedly tried to harm themselves. The news outlet found 6 incidents of attempted suicide and 2 deaths. A 19-year-old Mexican immigrant died in ICE detention in a county jail in Florida. His death is still under investigation, but has been presumed a suicide. To date, 46 people have died while in ICE detention during the second Trump Administration, and 13 of those deaths were in 2026 alone.

Medical neglect in ICE detention has also affected pregnant and postpartum women and children. 19th News examined court documents and interviewed pregnant detainees and immigration attorneys and found that “[p]regnant people in detention facilities say they are receiving sporadic medical visits and slow or limited medical care even when they experience bleeding, pain and other complications that could threaten their pregnancies. Some who have received medical visits say they were not given test results.” A recent joint report by the Women's Refugee Commission and Physician for Human Rights interviewed pregnant and postpartum women who had been deported to Honduras. The pregnant interviewees recounted that they received “little to no medical care” and  lacked “access to clean water or healthy food” while in ICE detention. One woman was deported shortly after being diagnosed with a missed miscarriage and required emergency care in Honduras. Another woman experienced bleeding while in detention but received no medical care. Only one of the women reported receiving prenatal care while shackled. All of the postpartum interviewees were separated from their children.

Zain Lakhani from Women’s Refugee Commission stated, “You’re putting large numbers of people who might suffer from all kinds of health or life-threatening conditions in this place and then not being attentive to how their bodies might be having health or life-threatening infections…With pregnant people and lactating women, there’s an additional level to the fact that pregnancy is always dangerous.” ICE abandoned a previous guidance that discouraged the detention of pregnant, postpartum, and lactating people. However, DHS maintains that the detention of pregnant people is “exceedingly rare” and those that are detained are receiving adequate medical attention, including “regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care.” This is difficult to corroborate due to the fact that DHS under the Trump Administration has stopped “providing reports tracking how many pregnant, postpartum or nursing immigrants are in detention facilities, or detailing the conditions of facilities.” According to available data, between January 1, 2025 and February 16, 2026 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrants were deported.

Children have also experienced medical neglect in detention. Mothers detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center have reported  that their children have suffered after receiving delayed and inadequate medical care. One mother described her 2-year-old having an unresolved tooth infection for three weeks and developing a fever. She explained, “She looks thinner, is more tired, and is always lying down… She can barely eat anything due to pain.” Another mother reported that her 9-year-old with autism has not had access to her regular medication while at Dilley, stating that “her condition has gotten worse now that she’s detained.”

In addition to medical neglect, detainees describe the other inhumane conditions they have experienced. Leqaa Kordia, a Columbia University protestor detained by ICE, recounted, “I've seen and experienced so much injustice in ICE dungeons…Lack of sleep, lack of nutrition, and stress caused for my first-ever seizure in my whole life. So now I am on a heavy medication for anti-seizure.” Detainees from Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss army base reported being served still frozen food and protested “after they had stopped receiving juice, fruit and milk with their meals.” Another former detainee described the conditions they experienced: “It was very crowded…We had to sleep on the floor, on the concrete. There were no mattresses, there was no bed. There was just one pot for the toilet and the smells were awful. There was no sanitation. I spent six days without washing and wearing the same clothes. We ate with our hands handcuffed.”

Family Separation

The recent report from the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) found that ICE has been violating its own policy to keep parents and children together. When arresting, detaining, and deporting people, ICE has not been fulfilling the requirement of asking people if they have children and allowing parents to decide what happens to their children in the event of their detention or removal. In July 2025, the Trump Administration replaced the Biden-era directive, Parental Interest Directive, with their own guidance, the Detained Parents Directive, which weakened ICE obligations towards detained parents and their children. This new guidance still maintains that ICE is required to ask “any person they detain at the time of arrest whether they are the primary caregiver of a minor.” If a parent is facing deportation, ICE must give them an opportunity to decide if they would like to be removed with their children or if they want their children to remain in the U.S. However, ICE is no longer required to facilitate this decision beyond what is “operationally feasible.”

Through interviews with U.S. detainees deported to Honduras, WRC and PHR found that the majority of detainees were not asked whether they had children by ICE agents and were not given the opportunity to decide what happened to their children. The majority were deported without their children even though they wished to stay together and some were deported along with their children despite wanting their children to remain in the U.S. with a guardian. Some parents chose to not disclose to ICE that they had children for fear that this would put their children or extended family members and friends at risk for arrest and detention in inhumane conditions. In some incidents, parents during their arrest attempted to alert ICE agents that they had children waiting for them, but were ignored, yelled at, and beaten. Some parents who were able to give written or verbal statements saying that they wanted their children to come with them were not reunified with their children prior to their deportation. Once deported, parents face significant barriers to being reunified with their children, including “legal and administrative barriers, financial barriers, and in some cases no way to physically reunify with the child.” U.S. law does not recognize a right to reunification for deported parents and there are no procedures or guidelines for facilitating international reunifications. Many of the countries receiving U.S. deportees also lack the resources and infrastructure to facilitate and support reunification. ProPublica estimates that ICE has detained the parents of “at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children.” According to PHR, while “the Honduran government has no formal program to facilitate reunification, more than 400 parents have sought reunification through the Honduran government over the past year.”

Ankle Monitors as an Extension not Alternative to Detention

The Alternatives to Detention program was initially established in 2005 "to ensure that immigrants comply with legal obligations while their cases proceed without being placed in detention.” Following an internal ICE memo in June 2025, officers were required to place ankle monitors on anyone enrolled in the program. By February 2026, 42,000 immigrants were being tracked with GPS ankle monitors. Previously, the ATD program allowed “individualized determinations” to tailor the level of supervision needed on a case-by-case basis depending on a person’s criminal history, compliance record with immigration enforcement, etc. Now, ICE’s assignment of ankle monitors to immigrants has proven to be arbitrary with many immigrants who have a history of compliance with their legal obligations being placed under monitoring. In this way, the ATD program and the use of ankle monitors has an “alternate form of detention.”

In some cases, ICE agents have used ankle monitors to track immigrants in their home and use the guise of technical problems with the device to lure people out and arrest them. In March, ICE agents were reported arresting and detaining immigrants outside of ICE Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) offices as they report for required in-person check-ins. ISAP is a part of the ATD program and monitors non-detained immigrants through in-person check-ins, GPS ankle monitors, and smartphone apps. In San Francisco, a mother and two young children were detained by federal agents outside of an ISAP office. After being transferred to multiple ICE detention centers, the mother and two children were deported to Colombia without due process and access to an attorney. One of the children was a 6-year-old boy who was deaf and had disabilities. The boy was detained and deported without his hearing aids which he relies on to communicate.

Unlawful Arrest and Detention of Journalist Covering ICE Activity

On March 4, journalist for local Spanish-language outlet, Nashville Noticias, Estefany Maria Rodríguez Florez was stopped in her car by federal agents, arrested without a warrant, and subsequently detained without option for bond. Rodriguez initially entered the U.S. on a tourist visa before filing a claim for political asylum. She then filed to adjust her status to lawful permanent resident after her marriage to a U.S. citizen and has a valid work permit through 2029. Before her arrest, Rodriguez routinely reported on and was critical of ICE operations, and her attorneys claim that her swift arrest and detention “indicated retaliation against Rodríguez in violation of the First Amendment due to her work as a journalist, including reporting on ICE.” ICE officials claim that Rodriguez is a flight risk after allegedly missing two immigration appointments. ICE and DHS officials also claim that Rodriguez “currently has no lawful immigration status” and that “A pending green card application and work authorization does NOT give someone legal status to be in our country.” DHS attempted to post a photo to X after the fact that was supposedly the warrant for Rodriguez; however, this differed from the warrant submitted to the court which was incomplete and did not indicate that the warrant was actually served to Rodriguez. Rodriguez was eventually released after 15 days in detention. She recounted being held in isolation for five days allegedly for lice and made to strip naked by guards who poured floor cleaner over her head, burning her eyes.

Immigration Restrictions and Policy Changes

Expanding Targets, Delays, and Fraud

In March, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of noncitizen survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and other serious crimes. These noncitizens are normally protected from deportation by the U-Visa, Violence Against Women Act, and T-Visa; however, many are being arrested, detained, and deported as part of the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown. Sarah Kahn, senior staff attorney at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, commented, “We started seeing with the massive deportation raids and enforcement actions that they no longer respected deferred action or pending petitions that these survivors had been granted.” DHS has argued that applicants for the T-Visa and U-Visa that are deported could still have their applications processed. However, attorneys have pointed out that this is not feasible because a person must be present in the U.S. to be eligible for the T-Visa and the U-Visa process can take upwards of 15 years.

This month, news outlets revealed that from January 20-December 22, 2025, ICE agents detained 265 and deported 132 people who held Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). SIJS was intended to be a pathway to legal residency which would allow young people who have been the victims of abuse, abandonment, or neglect in their home countries to remain in the U.S. and obtain a green card. Applicants must be under 21 at the time of filing and prove that they cannot live with one or both parents in their home countries due to established abuse and it is in their best interest not to be returned to their family. Due to the backlog of green card applications, SIJS provided deferred action which protected applicants from deportation and allowed them to work while they awaited the opportunity to apply for their green card. However, DHS claims that SIJS “does NOT confer lawful status” and that the program “is infected with fraud and abuses as hundreds of suspected and confirmed adult gang members let in under Biden administration.” The Trump Administration attempted to terminate deferred action for SIJS, however, this has been put on hold due to an ongoing lawsuit. Senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Project, S. Ellie Norton, explained that despite this ruling, there has been a “very disturbing pattern of ICE detaining young people with no criminal histories, then terminating their deferred action with no notice, no explanation at all and no opportunity to respond.” Last year, DHS terminated deferred action for 990 SIJS holders. Without knowledge that their deferred action had been removed and without an opportunity to challenge this removal, SIJS holders have been targeted by mass deportation operations and deported.

At the end of March, the Department of Justice revoked the status of two naturalized U.S. citizens as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to “denaturalize those whom it accused of gaining citizenship while concealing crimes or committing fraud.” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that “American citizenship is a sacred privilege — not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly…Today’s denaturalization actions reflect this Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to strip citizenship from people who conceal crimes or defraud the American people during the immigration process.”

Reports indicate that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has frozen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal process for applicants from the 39 countries subject to the Trump Administration’s national-security proclamations which halt all immigration and travel from those countries. In the wake of the Trump Administration eliminating legal avenues of immigration, a report from the Cato Institute found that the State Department and DHS received applications from immigrants who are ineligible for legal status and pocketed over $1 billion in fees without actually processing applications. This affected more than 2 million applicants for visas, work permits, and green cards from the 92 countries which have been collectively barred from holding lawful status in the U.S. under Trump Administration policies. According to Austin Kocher, a fellow at Immigration Lab and a professor at Newhouse and Syracuse University, “The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications…No denials. No refunds. Just silence.”

Immigration Courts Facilitating Mass Deportation Efforts

Propublica released a new report detailing a concerning trend of prosecutors charging migrants apprehended at the U.S. border with the charge of trespassing on military property in addition to entering the country illegally. After declaring a national emergency at the border, the Trump Administration ordered the transfer of “more than 200 miles of riverbank and desert scrub in West Texas and New Mexico to the armed forces” so that troops can apprehend migrants crossing the border. Under federal law, the military normally cannot detain civilians on domestic soil, however, troops can apprehend “intruders” on their own bases. According to ProPublica, at least 4,700 immigrants were charged with additional misdemeanor counts of trespassing on military property.

However, these additional charges on average don’t result in additional convictions with 60% of the charges being dropped or dismissed. Many judges have found the charges “legally deficient,” asserting that defendants lack the criminal intent of trespassing because they didn’t know they were on military land and prosecutors failed to prove otherwise. In their argumentation, the Trump Administration asserted that there are signs in English and Spanish posted alerting people of military territory. However, court records reveal that most people who were apprehended “didn’t come within 1,000 feet of any posting” and some were arrested more than 20 miles away from any sign. In some cases, prosecutors could not even produce the exact location of where a person crossed the border nor could they present clear and accurate maps of the military zones on which the person was supposedly trespassing.

Nevertheless, Trump Administration prosecutors insist on filing charges and appealing adverse decisions due to a directive issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding “zealous advocacy” of the administration’s priorities and warning that attorneys who declined to advance them could face discipline or termination.” The Administration claims that knowingly crossing the border satisfies the intent for trespassing. One byproduct of this “zealous advocacy” is that these largely unfounded charges, while not successful in the courts, can be used as another tool of coercion by the Administration and keep people detained in inhumane conditions as they refute the charges.

Noncitizens continue to face further persecution in immigration courts shaped by the Trump Administration. This is particularly evident in bond hearings which have been described as “fundamentally flawed” and “pre-cooked” as immigration judges appointed by the Trump Administration increasingly label detainees as a”danger to the community” or a “flight risk” based on dubious evidence. This results in detainees not being granted the opportunity for bail and remaining in immigration detention. Many skeptical federal judges have “required do-overs” of these bond hearings or demanded the release of detainees. One federal judge found that an immigration judge in Rhode Island denied bond even though the Administration presented absolutely no evidence against the detainee. In a similar case in Missouri, U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool concluded, “The bond hearing has indications of predetermined outcome…The [immigration judge’s] order enumerates that Petitioner: has been in the U.S. for 9 years, has not missed a court hearing, has family in the U.S. (husband and 3 children), and owns a home and operates a business in the U.S. The IJ’s determination regarding flight risk is clearly untethered by the facts and any logical conclusion to be determined from the facts.”

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) continues to make it harder for immigration courts to offer bonds to detainees and for detainees to challenge their detention and removal while making it easier for the Administration to deport noncitizens to third countries. The administrative court was designed as a way to “catch mistakes” made by immigration judges by being an avenue for both ICE and noncitizens to challenge decisions. Former board judge Andrea Sáenz explained, “The board has an impact on immigration law that is much, much bigger than the number of people that are on it…That's because they have this ability to set immigration precedents and rules for the whole country.” The Trump Administration has stacked the BIA by reducing its size by half and appointing 15 judges. Through its ability to set precedent and shape immigration court procedure, the new BIA under the Trump Administration quickly began shaping the immigration legal landscape to support the Administration’s mass deportation efforts (see February brief). In the last year, the BIA has published a record high of 70 decisions and backed DHS lawyers in 97% of cases – a rate that is on average 30% higher than that of the last 16 years. Earlier this year, the BIA published an interim final rule that would only allow a window of 10 days for immigrants to appeal their case (see February Brief). The rule was set to go into effect March 9th, however, a federal court has blocked this rule with an emergency motion.

Third Country Deportation

This month, reports showed more U.S. deportees being sent to Eswatini for third-country removal. The Lemkin Institute has previously issued a Red Flag Alert for the Trump Administration’s deportation of noncitizens to third countries not of their nationality and without due process. In these coutries they are at risk of – and many have suffered from – being subjected to severe human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, inhumane conditions, and torture. The Trump Administration, fully aware of the conditions deportees will face, continues to seek agreements with third-countries that will facilitate the further imprisonment of deportees or where instability, distance from the U.S., and deplorable human rights records (particularly regarding their treatment of migrants) provide another avenue of containment.

The U.S. began deporting noncitizens to Eswatini in July 2025 as part of a deportation agreement. Five men from Vietnam, Laos, Jamaica, Cuba, and Yemen were part of the initial flight to Eswatini and were reportedly held in a local prison until they can be repatriated to their home countries. A second flight of deportees arrived in the country in October 2025. This March, three of the men from Cuba, Yemen, and Jamaica from the July flight have sued the Eswatini government for their continued detention in the country. Reports show that all U.S. deportees remain in detention despite assurances from the Eswatini government that their human rights are being upheld. Beatrice Njeri, a lawyer with the Global Strategic Litigation Council, commented, “The people in detention have committed no crime [in Eswatini] and continue to undergo various human rights violations … they are being held indefinitely.” On March 12, the Eswatini government announced that it had received four more U.S. deportees from Tanzania, Sudan, and Somalia. The ongoing detention of U.S. deportees in Eswatini is especially concerning given reports of overcrowding and inhumane conditions in detention centers and reports of “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government.”

Analysis

Black and Brown communities (both citizen and noncitizen) continue to be racially profiled and unlawfully arrested, detained, and deported by federal agents. This state-sanctioned violent and systematic erosion of human rights based on a person’s perceived criminality dictated by race and ethnicity demonstrates an unfolding genocidal process against these communities. The expanding network of ICE detention centers are essentially concentration camps for Black and Brown people that keep them detained in inhumane conditions until they are eventually deported with little to no opportunity for bail or to exercise due process.

Like other concentration camps, their existence is justified by the Trump Administration as a necessary containment of a public threat infecting the wider society – a clearly genocidal framework. The violence of the ICE agents and guards, who commit daily tortures and humiliations against people they have trapped in these facilities, is indicative of the overall mass atrocity that President Trump’s mass deportation program has become. The widespread medical neglect has caused undue suffering and created life threatening circumstances for detainees who require specialty care or have preventable and treatable conditions. This has had a significant impact on pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women and children in detention. In a growing number of cases, inhumane treatment, particularly medical neglect, in ICE detention has resulted in death. Even those who are in the Alternatives to Detention program are still tracked and are at risk of being targeted and detained while in compliance with their legal obligations.

When it comes to immigration detention (and its extension the ATD program) cruelty, containment, and removal of those deemed undesirable by the Trump Administration is the goal. That cruelty continues even after deportation, as many parents are separated from their children without a feasible path to reunification. Additionally, the Trump Administration has been deporting U.S. detainees to third-countries where they are at risk of continued detention and further human rights abuses, like those deported to Eswatini.

Policies that keep people detained and fast track their removal continue to be supported by immigration courts, which have been stacked with Trump Administration appointees, including the BIA which sets immigration law precedent and dictates court procedure. Trump prosecutors have also used unfounded trespassing charges as a coercive measure and in an attempt to keep people detained while they are embroiled in legal challenges. The Trump Administration continues to eliminate legal avenues of immigration leaving thousands in a precarious position without legal status while pocketing the fees for unprocessed applications. The Administration has also been targeting those lawfully in the country under the T-Visa, U-Visa, and SIJS in an attempt to undermine those protections. This only serves to expand the Administration’s mass deportation dragnet by ensuring that noncitizens will be deemed unlawfully present in the country with little to no recourse to avoid deportation.

The Lemkin Institute continues to call for the dismantling of DHS, ICE, and CBP and the investigation of said agencies for their role in carrying out mass human rights abuses that could amount to crimes against humanity and an unfolding genocidal process. States must take measures to keep their communities safe and not collaborate with mass deportation operations. The Trump Administration’s network of immigration detention centers must be dismantled and investigated as potential concentration camps.

The Lemkin Institute renews its call for an immediate end to childhood detention and demands for the release of children currently held in immigration detention centers in horrific conditions without effective legal counsel or due process. Family separation must end, and there needs to be a concerted effort from the U.S. and third countries who have received U.S deportees to facilitate paths to reunification. Due to the extensiveness of the Trump Administration’s human rights violations and their widespread impact both domestically and internationally, there needs to be a concerted international effort to hold the U.S. government, its agents, and complicit third countries perpetuating human rights abuses accountable while redressing the suffering of U.S. deportees both in the U.S. and abroad. We hope one day this nightmare will be tried in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

As long as we’re able, the Lemkin Institute will continue to monitor the genocidal process unfolding in the U.S. The Institute wants to stress that while we do our best to document incidents of state-sanctioned human rights violations committed by federal agents, we are only able to access information that is publicly available. The select incidents we are able to highlight are not exhaustive and the extent of these mass deportation operations and human rights violations is most likely underreported by open sources. Documentation of these incidents is key. We encourage those who are able to safely do so to document and report incidents to local grassroots community defense organizations monitoring ICE activity in your area.

Resources

• Ice in My Area Tracker: Report and track ICE activity in your area 

• Immigration Policy Tracking Project: Stay up to date on rapidly changing immigration policies  

• National Immigration Legal Services Directory: Search for immigration services near you

• National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: Offers information to connect people to legal and community resources and currently lists national, state, and local immigration hotlines

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center : Provides information and currently lists California Rapid Response Networks to report ICE activity

• National Immigration Law Center: Provides information and resources on immigration policy

• American Civil Liberties Union: Stay up to date on changing immigration policies and ongoing litigation

• Immigrant Defense Project: Offers information on community defense and ICE tactics as well as a hotline to connect people with further resources and provide legal advice

• American Immigration Council: Provides breakdowns of immigration law and changing policy

• National Immigrant Justice Center: Provides legal resources and general information on current issues

• Third Country Deportation Watch: Provides information on third country deportations and countries who have entered into agreements with the U.S.

• ICE Flight Monitor: Human Rights First tracks and documents U.S. deportation flights