IRTF News

During the first dozen years after the coup in Honduras, tThe arrangement between drug traffickers and the Honduran political elite was straightforward and mutually beneficial. On the one hand, political actors received kickbacks or other economic benefits from the projects they awarded. On the other, drug traffickers were afforded new ways to disguise their illicit proceeds, build up their social capital, and fortify their facade as seemingly legitimate business actors. But as the coup presidents opened a window for these corrupt networks to expand their wealth and consolidate power, the environment, and those working to protect it, suffered greatly.

In the nearly 15 years since Honduras was declared open for business, deforestation has increased at an alarming rate alongside the expansion of the extractives industry. During this same time, the country has also seen an unprecedented wave of violence directed at environmental defenders. The non-governmental organization Global Witness recently said that “nowhere on earth are you more likely to be killed for protesting the theft of land and destruction of the natural world than in Honduras.”

When Julio González Jr., who had agreed to be deported to Venezuela (but was instead sent to El Salvador), refused to get off the plane in San Salvador, he, along with two other shackled men, were yanked by their feet, beaten and shoved off board as the plane’s crew began to cry. Dozens of migrants were forced onto a bus and driven to a massive gray complex. They were ordered to kneel there with their foreheads pressed against the ground as guards pointed guns directly at them.

Julio González and the two others were able to return to their family’s homes in Venezuela this week, among the 252 Venezuelans released from CECOT in exchange for the release of 10 American citizens and permanent U.S. residents imprisoned in Venezuela.

Many of the former detainees, after 125 days denied contact with the outside world, began to share details of their treatment.

“I practically felt like an animal,” González said by telephone from his parents’ home. “The officials treated us like we were the most dangerous criminals on Earth. … They shaved our heads, they would insult us, they would take us around like dogs.”

The three men denied any gang affiliations. Neither the U.S. nor El Salvador has provided evidence that they are gang members.

@austinkocher

Austin Kocher shares this two-part interview with Antero Garcia at La Cuenta. 

“When Antero first contacted me, I assumed we would focus on immigration data. But Antero, a Stanford professor and skilled interviewer, led the conversation through the thicket of my academic background and personal experiences to tell the story not only of what I do but why I do it. We discuss how my training as a geographer continues to shape my thinking, how my military service influenced my research on immigration enforcement, and why I believe—perhaps deeper than I believe anything—that working class Americans and immigrants need to see each other as allies, not adversaries, in the struggle for economic justice.

I am grateful to Antero and La Cuenta for generously publishing both parts of the thorough interview this week. I invite you to read both parts at the links below, then to explore La Cuenta’s many other moving stories. La Cuenta’s goal is to offer individual stories and perspectives about the costs of undocumented living in the U.S., primarily from the perspective of current and formerly undocumented individuals as well as members of mixed-status families.”

On June 24, IRTF convened more than 100 people from Islamic, Christian and Jewish faith traditions for an interfaith prayer in support and defense and migrants, hosted by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

After the morning prayer service, another organization, Network (a Catholic social justice advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, which has some Clevelanders on staff), organized a prayer vigil walk. Many of us from the IRTF prayer vigil joined the walk. At the Carl B Stokes Federal Courthouse (where the only immigration court in the state of Ohio is housed), we encountered a young woman crying. A few moments before ICE apprehended her husband as they exited a courtroom up on the 13th floor. The ICE agents told her “he’ll call you in about an hour.”  IRTF staff spent 20 minutes with her, consoling her, giving her resources and our mobile phone numbers.

Under President Bukele, basic freedoms have disappeared. Civil society is under siege, and the government is arresting those who speak out to silence them. The team at the human rights organization Cristosal has endured harassment, surveillance, and defamation. So Cristosal, which was founded by Anglican bishops 25 years ago and came to prominence for its investigations into corruption in the Bukele government, has made the difficult decision to relocate nearly 20 staff to Guatemala and a few others to Honduras. It has been forced to suspend operations inside the country.  

supportcristosal@cristosal.org

PO Box 4424 Burlington VT, 05406

Watch the one-hour Cristosal webinar (This Moment in El Salvador: Cristosal Suspends Operations in El Salvador, July 22 2025) with director Noah Bullock and other human rights leaders here . 

Colombia hosted the first ever “Emergency Conference” on Gaza, bringing together more than 30 countries that pledged to move beyond condemnation toward coordinated legal action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Over the course of two days, diplomats, activists, Palestinian organizations, and human rights lawyers participated in rallies, public symposiums, and closed door meetings to debate next steps forward. While the agreements reached were limited in scope, they marked an unprecedented show of international resolve.

The conference ended with several countries, including Colombia, signing a 6-point join action plan that includes blocks of weapons transfers to Israel and other diplomatic, legal, and economic measures aimed at stopping Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people and defending international law.

On Saturday, May 3, I flew to southern Arizona where I stayed for two and a half weeks for a border witness delegation. While hiking in the desert doing water drops, we always found clothing, shoes, and jackets left behind by migrants who had passed before us. There were also many black water bottles—used because they’re harder for Border Patrol to spot in the dark. Holding a black bottle and thinking about which hands had held it before was very powerful for me.

The whole trip to the borderlands was deeply meaningful to me. It gave me a much deeper understanding of the situation at the US-Mexico border and a deeper emotional sense of what migration means, not only at this border but at all borders. Seeing the vastness and dangers of the desert, walking on the same paths as people trying to migrate—this was very different from reading articles or looking at photos.

What I experienced brought me closer to IRTF—our  work and our mission.

Please consider donating to IRTF to make meaningful experiences like this possible for future volunteer staff associates.

Today’s essay could be characterized as a meditation on irritation. ICE is irritated with me for publishing facts, the public is increasingly irritated with ICE for not doing what they said they’d do, and I’m irritated with news outlets for getting basic facts wrong.

I have been publishing a steady stream of data-driven research over the past six months that (1) predicted a rise in ICE targeting immigrants without criminal histories, (2) documented this steady rise over the past several months, and, just this week, (3) showed that non-criminal immigrant arrests now make up an objective majority.

These findings have circulated widely in news articles at leading outlets, including CNN, The Economist, Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, the Guardian, Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and many more.

The findings are significant because they help us understand immigration enforcement trends, and because the data shows that the Trump administration’s rhetoric about going after dangerous criminals is not entirely accurate.

Pressed by the press about these numbers, ICE is becoming increasingly irritated and defensive. Border czar Thomas Homan1 and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for ICE, Tricia McLaughlin, have both reacted strongly to these well-documented data points published by the news media.

The current (as of June 30) percentage of ICE arrests for immigrants with no criminal histories is 45 percent.  Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin did not seem to know this. She says that the mainstream media is pushing a false narrative, even though they are getting all their data on arrests, detentions, and deportations from her agency!

This week, from July 14-16, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Transnational Institute (TNI), Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) and TerraJusta will co-host a three-day convening with local partners, the Network of Women Human Rights Defenders (RADDH), MASSVida y Caritas Honduras, in Choluteca, Honduras: ‘Without Human Rights, Energy Sovereignty Does Not Exist: A Meeting of Communities Affected by Energy Projects in Southern Honduras.’ The Central American country is facing an onslaught of international arbitration claims in secretive corporate courts, over a third of which have arisen from the renewable energy sector. This convening will shine a critical spotlight and offer an in-depth look at the negative impacts and community-driven opposition to the solar energy projects that benefited from deepening privatization and slew of renewable energy contracts approved in 2014, during the period known as the narcodictatorship. 

Guatemala has more fresh water than most countries, but its Indigenous population lacks safe, reliable access.

Human Rights Watch emphasized that the Guatemalan military’s legacy of racist policies continued to shape water access. During the country’s civil war, military campaigns targeted Indigenous communities, destroying infrastructure and displacing populations. Post-war reconstruction efforts largely excluded Indigenous areas, perpetuating inequality. The report stated, “The Guatemalan military’s historical role in marginalizing Indigenous communities laid the groundwork for today’s water crisis. Infrastructure development has consistently prioritized urban, non-Indigenous regions.”