IRTF News

For more than four decades, IRTF has welcomed dozens of interns who have helped carry forward our mission of promoting peace, human rights and systemic transformation across the Americas. Each year, our interns enter the living legacy of IRTF: never-ending advocacy, organizing, and accompaniment. Their experiences, like those of Lucia and Maddie, remind us of the importance of this work and of forming the next generation of justice seekers.

Maddie: As a small organization and a tight-knit community, IRTF’s support is direct. This summer, we accompanied migrants to their immigration hearings, speaking with them in a mix of broken English and Spanish, learning their stories and offering them support and companionship. We connected with other community groups to learn how we could best inform local migrant and refugee families through Know Your Rights training. We challenged our own comfort and security by attempting to take on the fear and uncertainty faced by the migrant community.

Lucia: IRTF has been an indispensable part of discerning the world I want to live in, the role I will have in that, and the way I hope to go about it. This haven of social justice, activism, and human-centered civic engagement has become the foundation on which I hope to build a lifetime of advocacy and purposeful action.

Please read more from the reflections of student interns Maddie and Lucia.

As El Salvador's state of emergency turns four years old, families warn of the toll of the mass arrests on children.

The Trump administration’s FY2027 budget combines a major defense buildup with sharp cuts to foreign aid, including a $12 billion reduction in diplomacy and assistance spending and a stronger focus on migration control and strategic leverage. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it shifts away from democracy and human-rights programming toward drug-war, anti-migration, and executive-controlled funding priorities

the Americxan immigration Council reports on ICE conractor's use of artifficial intelligence to track down Immigrants 

This austin Kocher report examines the unseen casualties of ICE's detention network, explaining how bureaucratic violence achieves to evade accountability for preventable death.

Thjis excerpt from a Christosal report highlights El Salvadors democrstic erosion under dictator Nayib Bukele.

to read the whole rreport click here

A system of concentration camps is being built and it's time the nation reckon with this monstrosity before any more people are killed. ICE detention camps now threaten to become a central instrument of repression under the Trump administration.

On March 25, Ohio Immigrant Alliance  released a report about the Hotline’s first year of existence, using Hotline operations data, called “Connecting Ohio: The Ohio Immigrant Hotline’s First Year in Action.”

Click here to download the report.